Security forces dispersed a limited march in downtown Cairo on Wednesday to commemorate the third anniversary of the notorious Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes.

A security source told Reuters' Aswat Masriya news site that police forces arrested 34 protestors, some of them members of the April 6 Youth Movement and the Revolutionary Socialists group.

A number of political groups called for marches in memory of 47 protesters killed and 3,000 injured in November 2011 in a violent standoff between the interior ministry and Tahrir Square revolutionaries.

Eyewitnesses told Reuters' Aswat Masriya that security forces fired "warning shots" to disperse the march.

Tens marched in Mohamed Mahmoud Street itself. However, they were met by tear gas from police forces, according to Aswat Masriya.

On 19 November 2011, months after longtime leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted and during the interim rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, clashes broke out on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, off Tahrir Square, and continued for a week.

Many of the dead were asphyxiated, with security forces using high volumes of tear gas.

The interior ministry denied at the time using live ammunition. No security force personnel faced trial or are serving sentences for the killings, except for one police officer convicted for attempted murder and intentionally shooting protesters in the eyes.

Meanwhile, civilians are on trial in connection to the violent events of 2011, and clashes that took place on the first anniversary in 2012, killing at least three.