EGYPTIANS must forge a pact of reconciliation or risk civil war, the country's top Muslim cleric says, as clashes in Cairo between the army and supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi left at least 51 people dead.
The Morsi-allied Muslim Brotherhood says the army and police opened fire on supporters of the toppled president, killing 53 people.
The army said fighting broke out after an armed group attempted to storm a Republican Guards facility, where Morsi's supporters believe he is being held.
A military source said gunmen tried to penetrate the barbed wire surrounding the compound while snipers working in tandem fired from nearby rooftops.
Interim President Adli Mansour has ordered an independent investigation into the violence.
The violence amplifies the conflict between the army and supporters of the Brotherhood, who vowed to continue demonstrating until Morsi is restored to power.
In a statement, the Brotherhood attacked army chief and Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, who led Morsi's overthrow, saying he wants to drive Egypt into civil war like that in Syria.
"They attacked the people who were praying, they had their heads bowed to the ground, their backs to their trusted army," Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said.
El-Haddad vowed they will continue protests.
"They are trying to terrorise us off the squares and disperse us. We are not going to do that. They are trying to drag us into a cycle of violence and we are not going to do that," he said.
A pro-Morsi doctor said the army used live bullets against the protesters.
"What happened today shows us that we are not dealing with a normal regime. (This is) a regime allowing bloodshed of its own people, a regime responding to bare breasts of peaceful protesters by shooting at them," the doctor said.
The health ministry said 322 were injured.
The army arrested 200 people for questioning.
In other parts of the country, clashes between rival protesters have killed 72 people since June 28, the al-Ahram newspaper reported, quoting the Health Ministry.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque, issued a warning against a civil war in the country.
The top Muslim cleric called for a transparent investigation into the deaths, urged authorities to form a national reconciliation committee to stop the bloodshed and said the armed forces needed to commit to returning Egypt to democracy within six months.
Vowing to remain in seclusion until "everyone shoulders his responsibility to stop the bloodshed, instead of dragging the country into civil war," al-Tayeb called in his statement for the immediate release of all political prisoners.
The army regime, however, has been adding to the number of political detainees since last Wednesday's coup, arresting dozens of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and closing the headquarters of the group's political arm.
The ultraconservative Salafist party al-Nour said it was withdrawing from talks with Egypt's new rulers on forming a government after the "massacre" at the military facility.
"We decided to withdraw immediately from all negotiations in response to the Republican Guard massacre," al-Nour spokesman Nader Bakkar wrote on social networking sites.
"Will not be silent," he added.
"We wanted to stop bloodshed and now it is spilled in rivers."
Al-Nour, which came second in Egypt's 2011 parliamentary elections, had backed the army's toppling of Morsi.
Egypt's military on Monday urged Morsi's supporters to end their sit-in protests, pledging that they would face no legal consequences for having joined in the demonstrations.
But spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly warned against anyone approaching military facilities or threatening the country's security.
