07:12
Tieng Anh Vui
Islamist groups have called the killings "a massacre", as Wyre Davies reports
Egypt's interim leader has expressed sorrow over the deaths of at least 42 people near a barracks in Cairo, urging restraint amid ongoing unrest.
Adly Mansour also said he had ordered an investigation into the deaths.
The Muslim Brotherhood says its members were fired on as they staged a sit-in for ousted President Mohammad Morsi, while the army said "terrorists" tried to storm the barracks.
Scores have died since unrest began at the end of last month.
The killings follow an incident in the same location on Friday in which three people died and dozens were wounded as troops fired on crowds.
Muslim Brotherhood: "Soldiers are ruling with fire and steel, with live ammunition"
Mr Morsi, an Islamist and Egypt's first freely elected leader, was ousted by the army last week after mass protests.
His supporters - many of them members of his Muslim Brotherhood movement - have been staging a sit-in outside the barracks, where Mr Morsi is believed to be held, accusing the army of mounting a coup.
Uprising call
In a statement read out on state TV, Mr Mansour's office expressed "deep sorrow" over the deaths in the "painful incidents" on Monday morning.
Analysis
There was a sombre mood in Cairo as people woke up to the news of killing and bloodshed.
Eyewitness accounts of what happened outside the Presidential Guard Club have inflamed the already simmering tensions. For Egyptians, it is shocking news no matter who started the gunfight.
The deadly incident is not the first. On Friday, three protesters were killed at the same spot in unclear circumstances but against a backdrop of a stand-off between the army and the pro-Morsi protesters.
The latest shooting is likely to lead to a political breakdown as the Islamist Nour party, the largest Salafist group, withdrew from marathon talks with interim president Adly Mansour to form a caretaker government.
He urged self-restraint to uphold national interests and the country's security, adding that a judicial committee would investigate the deaths and announce its results to the public.
He gave the army's version of events, describing the incident as an attempt to storm the Presidential Guard barracks.
Mr Mansour urged protesters not to approach the military or "vital installations".
Earlier the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Brotherhood's political wing - which took nearly half the seats in historic parliamentary elections held in late 2011 and early 2012 - called on Egyptians to stage an "uprising" against "those trying to steal their revolution with tanks".
It also urged the international community to intervene to "stop further massacres" and prevent Egypt becoming "a new Syria".
The hardline Salafist Nour party - which had supported Mr Morsi's removal - said it was withdrawing from talks to choose an interim prime minister, describing the shooting incident as a "massacre".
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports from a hospital treating some of the injured
'Guns and tear gas'
There were conflicting reports over what happened outside the barracks on Monday morning.
The Brotherhood put the number of dead at 53, and said children were among the victims.
It said the army raided its sit-in at about 04:00 (02:00 GMT) as protesters were performing dawn prayers.
Later, in an emotional news briefing, members of the Brotherhood said military chief Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi was "an assassin and a butcher".
But the health ministry said at least 42 people were killed and some 300 people wounded.
In a statement read on state media, the army said "an armed terrorist group" had tried to storm the barracks.
An army officer was among those killed and a number of other soldiers were wounded, some critically, it said.
The interior ministry said a police officer had also been killed.
Army's post-Morsi roadmap
- Constitution to be suspended temporarily and interim president sworn in
- "Strong and competent" civilian technocratic government to be installed
- Supreme Court to pass a draft law on parliamentary election and prepare for parliamentary and presidential polls
- "Charter of honour" to be drawn up and followed by the media
- Measures taken to empower young people and a national reconciliation committee to be formed
Mr Morsi was ousted on Wednesday by the military. It said it was responding to the demands of anti-Morsi protesters across Egypt, who accused him of becoming authoritarian and failing to tackle the economy.
He was replaced on Thursday by Adly Mansour - the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court - who has pledged to hold elections, although no date has yet been given.
The army has insisted it does not want to remain in power.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Cairo says the latest violence has derailed efforts to find a political way out of Egypt's crisis, leaving the country in a dire state.
The withdrawal of the ultra-conservative Nour party from the political transition talks will also set back efforts to appoint a new prime minister, our correspondent adds.
Continue reading the main story
Bowen: Egypt's failed democratic experiment
Connolly: An unpresidential democracy
What next for Muslim Brotherhood?
Key players in the Egyptian crisis
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