Doctors stage rare public protest against police abuses

The doctors' union also voted to offer free services in public hospitals and to call a partial strike in two weeks time unless the officers involved are held accountable, measures are taken to protect medics from police intimidation and the health minister submits his resignation.

Next to her a medic raised a sign that depicted a rifle shooting at a white doctor's coat together with the caption: "police are thugs."

According to online and televised testimonies of the doctors who came under assault, the incident took place after one of the doctors described the cut on the officer's forehead as "simple" and said it didn't require stitches.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a prominent local rights group, condemned the violence against doctors, saying that it was "a reflection of the level of police abuse of authority these days."

President el-Sissi often portrays the security forces as national heroes battling Islamic insurgency and terrorism, but in November he offered an apology following a series of deaths in police custody, including that of a lawyer, which sparked a lawyers' strike.