"Hired thugs" wielding knives attacked a student demonstration at Cairo University on Thursday whilst campus security guards did nothing to intervene, according to statements released by the April 6 Youth Movement and the Justice and Freedom Youth Movement.

At least five students were injured, said April 6.

Students had been holding a sit-in at Cairo University for a week in protest at the 1979 university charter which has been used to restrict political activism and freedom of expression on campus.

The sit-in started after the Ministry of Higher Education decided to hold student union elections without consulting the student body, leaving no time to draft a new charter. Student also held protests at the Journalists' Syndicate and the ministry and called for a boycott of the elections after their demands were ignored.