The Muslim Brotherhood has responded by attacking Christian churches and shops across Egypt.

EGYPT — Security forces stormed two huge Cairo protest camps occupied for weeks by supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi, leaving at least 124 people dead in a crackdown that turned into a bloodbath.

As clashes raged in the capital, three churches were attacked in central Egypt, with Christian activists accusing Morsi loyalists of waging “a war of retaliation against Copts in Egypt”.

Hours after the first tear gas canisters rained down on tents of protesters in the sprawling Rabaa al-Adawiya camp in east Cairo, an AFP correspondent counted at least 124 bodies in makeshift morgues.

In a field hospital, its floors slippery with blood, doctors struggled to cope with the casualties, leaving the hopeless cases, even if still alive.

The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi emerged, said that 2,200 people had been killed and over 10,000 injured as authorities confirmed 56 deaths in Wednesday’s violence.

Security officials had spoken of a gradual dispersal of the sit-ins over several days but the dramatic descent on the squares shortly after dawn came as a surprise to many.