'At least 297 killed in Egypt unrest' - rights group

At least 297 people were killed in the unrest in Egypt in the last two weeks, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

"It was the police's excessive use of force and illegal tactics that caused the vast majority of these deaths," HRW researcher Heba Morayef told the BBC World Service.

"The majority of deaths occurred on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th, and the primary cause was live gunfire," Ms Morayef added.

Ms Morayef told the BBC that other protesters "were killed because of the use of teargas at close range and officers firing it into the crowd as opposed to into the air".

The HRW report came as protesters on Cairo's central Tahrir Square have called for a new push to oust Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Thousands of people still occupy the square but their lines have been gradually pushed back by the army, keen to get traffic moving again.