Egyptian anti-government protests – in pictures

A boy carrying bread runs as riot police block a road Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters Protesters tussle with riot police in Cairo Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters While previous calls for protests have yielded 'meagre results', these demonstrations are 'unprecedented' in their scale, according to al-Jazeera television Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators surround a police water cannon vehicle Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators clash with police Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images A protester holds up a placard calling on Mubarak to quit Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Protesters are confronted by riot police as they demonstrate in Cairo Photograph: Mohammed Abu Zaid/AP Teargas is fired by police at demonstrators calling for an end to almost 30 years of Mubarak rule Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: Mohammed Abed/Action images A protester throws a rock at police Photograph: Khaled el Fiqi/EPA Police retreat from protesters Photograph: Khaled el Fiqi/EPA A man runs from a police water cannon Photograph: AP Demonstrators deface a poster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak Photograph: AP Teargas billows in downtown Cairo Photograph: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters Thousands of demonstrators crowd in central Cairo Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Anti-government protesters light flares in Tahrir Square Photograph: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters An anti-government protester exchanges words with a policeman in Cairo Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters An Egyptian protester faces policemen Photograph: EPA Plainclothes police arrest Mohamed Abdul Quddus, rapporteur of the Civil Liberties Committee and member of the Press Syndicate Council Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters A riot policeman fires teargas amid clashes in Cairo Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP Egyptian demonstrators in Cairo Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images Egyptian riot police clash with anti-government activists in Cairo Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP