SEVERAL PEOPLE have been killed following continued overnight clashes in Cairo, as supporters and opponents of President Hosni Mubarak squared off in the city’s main Tahrir Square.

Sustained bursts of gunfire continued for up to two hours overnight, the BBC reports, as protesters demanding the immediate resignation of Mubarak confronted loyalists to the under-fire president.

Al Jazeera reports that at least five people were killed when gunfire was exchanged at around 2am Irish time, with shots being fired from at least three areas of the square.

While the country’s military entered the square in tanks in order to dispel protesters, they did not intervene in any battles.

Many of Mubarak’s opponents believe that the president’s supporters in the more recent conflicts have not been everyday citizens, but rather plain-clothes police officers trying to maintain the established order of power in the country.

Reuters reports that Egypt’s interior ministry has denied such suggestions, however.

The latest violence has been criticised by the United States, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton placing an overnight phone call to Mubarak’s vice-president Omar Suleimin to share her concerns.

Both the United States and Ireland, as well as many other western nations, have asked travelling nationals to leave the country immediately.

Human Rights Watch has called for both the EU and United States to use their leverage in the region to ensure no further violence against anti-government protestors.