CAIRO—An Egyptian security official says police protesting in front of Egypt's Interior Ministry have set fire to part of the downtown complex.
TV footage shows flames licking up the building's top floors and a huge plume of black smoke filling the sky.
The official says protesters lit Tuesday's fire in the building housing in the ministry's personnel department. It then spread to an adjacent building.
The fire followed a protest by thousands of low-ranking police officers calling for better wages and working conditions.
Mass demonstrations that toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11 have set off frequent protests by labourers seeking to improve their lot.
Also Tuesday, Egypt's public prosecutor indicted the former finance and information ministers in a criminal court on charges of wasting public funds, the official state news agency MENA reported.
The cases are among a number brought forward by prosecutors who have been investigating corruption charges made after an uprising that toppled Mubarak erupted on Jan. 25.
"The public prosecutor ordered the referral of former Information Minister Anas el-Fekky and former Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali to Cairo's criminal court on charges of deliberately wasting public funds," MENA said.
In February, Egyptian investigators ordered the detention of Fekky on suspicion of profiteering and wasting public funds. Fekky's detention would continue, MENA said on Tuesday.
Investigations showed Fekky demanded 36 million Egyptian pounds ($6 million) from the finance minister to cover media expenses for parliamentary elections as well as media campaigns to promote the political events and achievements made since Mubarak took office in 1981, MENA said.
Ghali reportedly accepted the requested sum, MENA said, citing a spokesman for the public prosecutor. Part of the amount was spent by Fekky in breach of the cabinet's operating standards, MENA said.
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