Cairo presidential palace restored to uneasy calm after deadly clashes Egypt's Republican Guard detain a protester injured during overnight clashes outside the presidential palace in Cairo. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters Egypt's Republican Guard restored an uneasy calm to the area around the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday after fierce clashes in which seven people were killed as the political crisis worsens over Mohamed Morsi's controversial decrees extending his power. The president, criticised for his silence in the last few days, had been expected to address the nation, but failed to do so amid suggestions he may do so on Friday. Hundreds of his Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had camped out near the palace withdrew before a deadline set by the Republican Guard. Scores of opposition protesters remained but were kept behind a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks. Egypt, scene of the second and biggest of the revolutions of the Arab spring, remains locked in confrontation over a presidential decree that two weeks ago granted Morsi extraordinary powers, including immunity from any judicial challenges. The situation was then exacerbated by a rush to complete a draft constitution that Morsi called to be put to a referendum scheduled for 15 December. Egypt has seen sporadic clashes throughout nearly two years of political turmoil after Hosni Mubarak's departure in February 2011. But Wednesday's street battles were the worst yet between Morsi's supporters and opponents, who threw stones and petrol bombs at each other, stoking fears that a standoff which already has Egypt bitterly divided will grow more polarized and violent . Wednesday's clashes began after the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party announced that supporters were heading for the palace. Afterwards the area surrounding it looked like a war zone. Officials said 350 people had been wounded in the violence. Morsi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new "dictatorship." He insists his actions were necessary to prevent courts still full of Mubarak-appointed judges from sabotaging a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition. Opposition groups have now coalesced into a "national salvation front" led by the veteran reform figure Mohamed ElBaradei, a former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahy and former Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa. The latter two both contested last summer's presidential elections. Earlier in the day a small crowd milled about, some of them keeping up the chants against Morsi. Further marches by anti-Morsi protesters reached the palace later in the evening. As the crowds grew protesters chanted: "The Brotherhood cannot be trusted," and "Where are the Brotherhood, the revolutionaries are here." Chants of "leave" and "the people want to bring down the regime" - famous from last year's anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square - rang out. "The Brotherhood are trying to get everything they want by force," said an engineering student, David Farid. It is like coercion because they have everything and they feel that they can do what they want and to hell with everyone else. The opposition insists that the national dialogue Morsi has called for to avert the crisis cannot take place until the decree is rescinded and the referendum delayed. The draft constitution has been criticised both for its content and the manner in which it was rushed through hurriedly by an assembly lacking minority and liberal voices who withdrew in objection to many of the articles. It has also been criticised for its lack of protection for women and minority rights, civil liberties and freedom of expression. Maha Azzam of the London-based thinktank Chatham House said the situation had worsened. "A large section of the opposition have always felt uncomfortable with the election result that brought Morsi to power," she told al-Jazeera TV. What we are seeing is an ongoing power struggle. The majority would want to go a referendum and see this out. Egypt is at a "critical point," Azzam said. Morsi is trying to cement his power and he is trying to do it step by step. But there are many spoilers and many people who are unhappy with an Islamist element and what some see as a hidden agenda. But we have seen 30 years of propaganda against the Muslim Brotherhood. Underlining international concern about the crisis, the UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, urged the Egyptian authorities to protect peaceful protesters and prosecute anyone inciting violence, including politicians. "The current government came to power on the back of similar protests and so should be particularly sensitive to the need to protect protesters' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Pillay said in Geneva.