CAIRO, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - Four people were killed in violence that sporadically broke out in central Cairo over the past 24 hours, health ministry spokesman Ahmed Omar told journalists on Thursday.

Two people died of gunshot wounds they sustained during the unrest near Egypt’s iconic Tahrir Square. The other two succumbed to their injuries immediately in the same district, where radical youth groups briefly clashed with security forces throughout the day.

Protestors threw stones and Molotov cocktails at security forces, who responded by firing tear gas at them and attempting to push them back to Tahrir.

The interior ministry said in a statement that 343 police officers were injured since January 25, including 82 officers who were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Mass rallies in major Egyptian cities to mark the second anniversary of the 2010 revolution on January 25 turned violent the following day. On January 26, a court handed death sentences to football fans over Egypt’s worst-ever football fan clash and stampede that left at least 72 people dead and another 254 injured last February.

More than 50 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in the unrest that followed.

On Monday, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi had to declare a state of emergency in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, three cities along the Suez Canal. Four more people were killed and more than 400 others were injured after tens of thousands of mourners attended a mass funeral in Port Said on Sunday.