Five people were killed and 45 others injured in clashes in Abbasiya district in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where the Defense Ministry is, the Egyptian Health Ministry said Wednesday.

The clashes erupted on Wednesday morning between protesters supporting disqualified Salafist presidential candidate Hazem Abou Ismail and unknown thugs, according to an announcement by the ministry.

The unknown assailants attacked the protesters with cement- based bombs, stones, birdshot guns and teargas cannisters, official al-Ahram website reported.

Gunfires were heard near Abbasiya district, and traffic nearby was crowded and slow.

This was the second clash in the area within 72 hours, after the first had left one killed and more than 100 others injured.

Abou Ismail's supporters are in an open ended sit-in in Cairo's Tahrir square, opposing the country's presidential election commission's decision to exclude Abou Ismail from the contest on the basis that his mother has a U.S. passport.