Bloody clashes erupted in Cairo on Saturday between protesters demanding political change and loyalists of the ruling military council, hours after the military ruler pledged democracy.

Riot police fired tear gas at protesters who were being pelted with rocks and bottles by loyalists in the Abasseya district near the headquarters of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which took power when president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February.

The health ministry, in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency, said 55 people were injured in the clashes, including six who needed hospital treatment.

There were chaotic scenes as army loyalists, all civilians, climbed onto the roofs of buildings and threw rocks at the protesters.

Soldiers and riot police lined a main street in Abasseya while army loyalists blocked other streets in the area, trapping protesters in the middle.

The clashes came after the ruling military accused protesters camped out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, singling out the pro-democracy April 6 movement which helped launch the uprising that toppled Mubarak, of sowing instability.