Egyptian health ministry and security sources said two protesters were killed in Friday clashes with police in the Cairo district of Alf Maskin and a third in the capital's Abbaseya area, The Daily Star reported.

These sources further claimed that the protesters fired weapons and hurled petrol bombs at police who responded “with tear gas.”

The report, however, does not explain how the protesters were killed.

The Interior Ministry also said it had arrested 47 people, who it accused of being Brotherhood members, during the violence that broke out following Friday prayers.

According to the report, four police officers suffered wounds from birdshot in the port city of Suez.

The Egyptian health ministry also stated that 48 people were wounded during the Friday protests nationwide.

Police cars were burned by protesters in at least two Cairo districts.

Egypt has been in a state of turmoil since the nation’s US-backed army ousted its first democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood last July.

The Brotherhood, however, has kept up its protests against Morsi's overthrew despite a severe crackdown on the movement that saw the group labelled a terrorist organization in December and led to the killing of hundreds of its supporters and arresting thousands more.

Meanwhile, the Saudi regime, which hailed Morsi’s overthrow by Egypt’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, designated the Brotherhood a “terrorist group” on Friday, a move that an Egyptian government spokesman said Cairo welcomed.

The Brotherhood said in a statement that it was "surprised" by the decision, which it said "contradicts entirely with (Saudi Arabia's) historical relations" with the Islamist movement founded in 1928.

MB/MB