CAIRO — Egyptian police on Sunday fired tear gas to disperse a rock-pelting crowd of residents on a River Nile island in Cairo, clashes that left one person dead and 50 others injured, authorities said.

The Health Ministry said a resident was killed and said 19 others were wounded in the clashes on al-Waraq island on the northern fringes of the Egyptian capital. It did not say how the man was killed.

An Interior Ministry statement said a total of 31 — police officers as well as contractors who arrived with them on the island — were injured in the clashes. The injured police included two generals, it said.

Ten residents were arrested, it added.

Video clips posted on social media networks showed hundreds of angry islanders, mostly young men, at the man’s funeral, marching through farm fields while chanting.

The violence broke out when police attempted to evict residents staying or utilizing state land without permission, part of an ongoing, nationwide campaign launched by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to retake state property illegally controlled by individuals or commercial enterprises.

The local media have for weeks been showing images of police and army troops demolishing buildings or commercial facilities illegally built or operating without a license.

Associated Press