Egypt clashes: Divided views

At least 51 people have been killed near a barracks in Cairo. Egypt's interim leader Adly Mansour has ordered an investigation into the deaths.

The Muslim Brotherhood says its members were fired on as they staged a sit-in for ousted President Mohammed Morsi, while the army said it had responded to an armed provocation.

BBC News website readers in Egypt have been sharing their experiences.

Morsi came through ballot boxes, and he should only leave in the same way. It doesn't make any sense that a group of people with the help of a minister of defence can just force the president out. Which country's policies allow this? I never heard of such thing in my life, a minister sacking a president. What do Pope Tawadros and Sheikh Tayeb have to do with politics now? Their places are in the church and the mosque only.

Not all Morsi's supporters belong to the Brotherhood. I don't. I believe he's the best person to rule this country. I've always supported Morsi, but I never took part in any demonstration. I came down here today after I watched a video of pro-Morsi protesters who were attacked with bullets while praying. If Morsi is not returning, we should have a referendum on his return. God willing, he will return.

This is the first time Egypt has been through a democratic experience. Any democratic country holds elections even if the popularity of the president has declined. When Obama's popularity dropped to 26% and only 50% voted for him, nobody said, 'Let's overthrow him.'

We have been deceived. Let's suppose when millions call for the ousting of the first elected president, the minister of defence should depose him, what will happen when millions take to the street and call for his return? Millions will rebel against the return of the president, so the president would be sacked again. It will never end!

This is a destruction. The country will never settle and will never prosper. We agreed from the beginning to have democracy as the judge. Our right of having the president return will never be wasted. All countries acknowledge this as a military coup. Those behind the coup should be executed. Nobody will deceive us and say this is not a coup, it is. We will remain in the street, it's our right. We will remain here even if all of us were killed.

I'm not happy with the clashes. It's a bad thing no matter what the political direction is. Seeing people killing each other is not what anyone wants. Nobody feels good about what has happened. It is very disappointing that the army had to protect its headquarters using weapons against other civilians - Morsi supporters- who included some armed people as well. We hear very different stories. Morsi supporters claim the army attacked them while there were doing their dawn prayers - a story that does not make sense at all to most Egyptians. On the other hand the army said that at dawn some terrorist groups started attacking the headquarters with weapons so they had to respond.

I think the solution to the current crisis is to go to the elections again as soon as possible, but after forming a proper constitution first. The constitution must be made when no political party is in power to ensure it is not biased. A clear road map with election dates has to be announced and published as soon as possible.

The other thing is that only peaceful demonstrations should be allowed, any civilians found with weapons have to be arrested immediately. Egypt is united. Conspiracies to divide Egyptians into civilians against army members or Muslims against Christians will necessarily fail. Anyone who has read history will conclude that.

People do sympathise with what happened even though most people I know are convinced it was the Muslim Brotherhood who started the violence first. Some say the army could have done more.

I don't know what the solution is, but you're reasoning with people who are willing to die for the cause they believe in. Many are prepared to die in the name of religion, which is the case for most in the Muslim Brotherhood. I think a lot in the Muslim Brotherhood are right to get annoyed with the army for killing protesters. It's a tough situation. We don't want to see bloodshed. A lot of people are unhappy on both sides.

People have been seeing the country deteriorating and the president making horrendous decisions. You could see that the country was going downhill. That's why people don't have much sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood.

He's an elected president who should remain for four years. After he finishes his term, we'll hold new elections and people can choose a new president if they want. Those who claim they have the majority, why didn't they run for parliamentary elections then? The people's assembly has the authority to change the constitution, change the president and anything else. Didn't they say we'll stick to democracy? We accepted this, but we shouldn't have. If the president doesn't return, we are better off dead. We will keep protesting peacefully until we die here. They won't let us live anyway, but we won't die in our homes, we will die in squares. I will not accept the president going this way. He's legitimate, he was elected. Rabee Ali

The Muslim Brotherhood is trying to put pressure on the current president, through violence, in order to stop the progress of the revolution. Many extremist Islamic leaders have made threats to kill people demonstrating against Morsi, regardless of all the threats, 33 million were on the streets on 30 June asking Morsi to step down. Now these troops are taking violence to extreme levels, which was made obvious in Alexandria. It is also worth mentioning that any army building is never a place to have demonstrations as it's a military building, and the Muslim Brotherhood completely ignored this and started climbing the walls, and even using weapons against the republican guard's headquarters in order to force them to use power. As a matter of fact, any army would have reacted the same way if they had terrorists attacking their headquarters with weapons. Karim Magdy