Egypt's security forces closed off Cairo's Tahrir Square in anticipation of protests by supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

 

The Muslim Brotherhood and their allies declared Thursday a "Day of Rage" and vowed to come out against authorities. Thursday marks one year since the  ouster of Morsi.

 

A security official told state news agency MENA that police and army units have sealed off Tahrir Square using armoured vehicles and barricades. Explosives experts searched the area for bombs, the official said.

 

A number of bombs exploded in several areas in and around Cairo earlier Thursday. One was killed in a village near Cairo and another injured, with security forces saying the deceased was a suspected culprit. He was killed when the explosive device he was rigging detonated, security sources said.

 

Another bomb went off in the old Cairo district of Abbasiya near a military hospital, while two others exploded in the working class district of Imbaba in Giza adjacent to Cairo. No casualties from those bombings were reported.

 

Security forces also sealed off Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square in east Cairo, where the main pro-Morsi sit-in was forceably dispersed last August, leaving hundreds dead. The presidential palace was also sealed off.

 

On Monday, the anniversary of the launch of mass anti-Morsi protests last year, a series of bombs detonated at the presidential palace, killing two police officers and injuring 13 others. The bombings were claimed by Agnad Misr, who had announced the location of the bombs three days earlier.

 

Extra police patrols were deployed around Egypt, especially in main highways, roads and squares across the country, the security official told MENA.