One dead, dozens hurt as police clash with Egypt protesters CAIRO/PORT SAID, Egypt (Reuters) - At least one protester was shot dead and dozens wounded on Friday when riot police clashed with demonstrators demanding the overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi. Youths threw petrol bombs and shot fireworks at the outer wall of Mursi's Cairo presidential compound as night fell. Police responded by firing water cannon and teargas leading to skirmishes in the surrounding streets. Two witnesses said they had seen a protester shot dead in Cairo with live ammunition in front of them. It's verified. I am at the morgue. He was shot with two bullets, and that's the report of the hospital. The shots were in the neck and the right side of the chest," said one of the witnesses, lawyer Ragia Omran. Medical and security sources confirmed Mohamed Hussein Qurany, 23, was killed with live bullets. The head of Egypt's ambulance service said at least 54 people had been wounded across the country, mostly in Cairo. The renewed violence brought an end to a few days of calm after the deadliest week of Mursi's seven months in power. Protests marking the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak have killed nearly 60 people since January 25, prompting the head of the army to warn this week that the state was on the verge of collapse. The head of the Republican Guard, which protects the palace, condemned what he described as attempts to climb the compound walls and storm a gate. In a statement to the state news agency, he urged protesters to keep their demonstration peaceful. With multi-colored fireworks bouncing off their shields and bursting among them, helmeted and baton-wielding riot police chased protesters at the palace and set their tents ablaze. Petrol bombs briefly set fire to a building inside the compound. Footage aired by al-Hayat private television showed half a dozen helmeted riot police surrounding a prone man, beating him with truncheons as he lay on the ground beside an armored vehicle near the palace. Activists quickly posted the pictures online with comments including "As if the revolution never happened." There were also scuffles earlier near Cairo's central Tahrir Square, where police fired teargas at stone-throwing youths. In Alexandria, protesters blocked roads, staged a sit-in on the railway and tried to break into the TV and radio building. Earlier, men dressed in mourning black marched through the Suez Canal city of Port Said, scene of the worst bloodshed of the past eight days, chanting and shaking their fists. The main opposition National Salvation Front denied it was to blame for the demonstrations turning violent. Mursi's office said it would "hold the political forces that may have participated in incitement fully politically responsible, pending results of investigation." Tahrir Square, ground zero of the uprising against Mubarak, has become a graffiti-scarred monument to Egypt's perpetual turmoil, strewn with barbed wire and burnt-out cars. Vendors sold flag bracelets, pharaonic statues, sunflower seeds, water and fruit while the protesters gathered. A man with a microphone shouted to the crowd, calling for Mursi to be put on trial. But seven months since his narrow election victory over an ex-Air Force commander, Mursi has failed to unite Egyptians and protests have made the country seem all but ungovernable. Brotherhood followers have clashed with demonstrators in the past, especially at the presidential palace which they regard as a symbol of his legitimacy. But the group has kept its men off the streets during the latest violence. Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Shaimaa Fayed and Alexander Dziadosz in Cairo, Abdul Rahman Youssef in Alexandria and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Alison Williams