At least 13 people were killed on Sunday as security forces tried to clear protesters from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, casting a dark shadow over Egypt’s first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s downfall.

Police and military forces used batons, tear gas and birdshot to clear the central square of thousands of protesters demanding that the ruling military cede power to a civilian authority.

It was the second day of violence in the Egyptian capital, following a peaceful anti-military mass rally on Friday.

Morgue officials said 13 people died on Sunday and two people on Saturday, kicking off a violent countdown to the country’s first elections since the end of former president Mubarak’s 30-year-rule.

The legislative elections are due on November 28.

Early Monday the imam of the Omar Makram mosque on Tahrir Square, Sheikh Mazhar Shahin, told public television that calm had returned on the square after he reached an agreement with the security forces.

Shahin said he had met with a delegation from the army and police to set up a ceasefire.

The morgue officials said that at least four people had been shot dead on Sunday.

The health ministry said 10 were killed Sunday and 1,700 wounded over the weekend in the clashes, in a statement to the official MENA news agency.

Earlier Dr Mohammed Fatuh, who heads a field hospital in the square, confirmed to AFP that three more bodies had been brought in bearing bullet.