Anger has been building as the public and lawmakers blamed the country's military rulers for the bloodshed, the latest to signal rapidly deteriorating security in the country since Hosni Mubarak's fall nearly a year ago.
The protests started as a peaceful march by Egyptians angry over the police inaction from the headquarters of Al-Ahly, one of Egypt's most popular soccer clubs, to the area outside the ministry building near Tahrir Square, the epicenter of last year's popular uprising that ousted Mubarak.
Security forces guarding the area were separated from the more than 10,000 protesters by concrete blocs and barbed wire, but tensions rose as protesters advanced toward them, cursing and removing some of the barriers. They also raised their shoes in the air and hurled stones. Police responded with heavy tear gas, sending demonstrators running, with some passing out and falling to the ground.
Some tried to move big concrete blocs erected around the ministry since November, when clashes between the police and protesters then left more than 40 people dead.