CAIRO — Egypt declared a month-long state of emergency and international leaders appealed for calm as clashes in Egypt between security forces and Muslim Brotherhood protesters left dozens dead and Cairo in chaos.

The Health Ministry said 149 people had been killed and over 1,400 were wounded in the clashes. However,  a Muslim Brotherhood official put the figure at over 2,200, with thousands more injured, according to establishment daily al-Ahram.

A statement by the office of President Adly Mansour said Wednesday that the state of emergency took effect at 4 p.m. Egypt time. It didn’t provide details but says Mansour also ordered the armed forces to support the police in their efforts to restore law and order and protect state facilities.

The government also imposed a nighttime curfew on Cairo and 10 provinces.

The United States, United Nations, European Union and a number of countries, including Jordan and Turkey, condemned the violence and called for calm by both sides.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking at Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, where President Barack Obama is vacationing, said the violence runs counter to the pledges made by Egypt’s interim government. The “world is watching” what is happening in Cairo, he said and urged restraint.

Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pro-reform leader in the interim government, resigned in protest over the crackdown. He wrote that he is not prepared to be held responsible for a “single drop of blood,” and that only more violence will result, according to a copy of his letter to interim President Adly Mansour that was emailed to The Associated Press.

Egyptian security forces showered protesters with tear gas as the sound of gunfire rang out at both sites throughout the day Wednesday.

In Cairo, smoke clogged the sky and fires smoldered on the streets, which were lined with charred poles and tarps after several tents were burned.

The smaller camp of supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi was cleared relatively quickly, but clashes were ongoing at the main site near a mosque that has served as the epicenter of the pro-Morsi campaign.

At least six Egyptian policemen were killed in the clashes, according to officials.

Among those killed was Jerusalem-based Sky News cameraman Mick Deane.

Islam Tawfiq, a Brotherhood member at the Nasr City sit-in, said that the camp’s medical center was filled with dead bodies and that the injured included children.

“No one can leave and those who do are either arrested or beaten up,” he told the AP.

“The reports of deaths and injuries are extremely worrying,” Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said. “We reiterate that violence won’t lead to any solution and we urge the Egyptian authorities to proceed with utmost restraint.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the UN Security Council and the Arab League to intervene.

“The international community, especially the UN Security Council and Arab League, must act immediately to stop this massacre,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement.

“We strongly condemn Wednesday’s police assault on Egyptian people. It is a grave crime that the police fired on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators. Deaths since June 30 are the responsibility of the interim government which seized the democratic and civil administration through a military coup,” the press office of the Turkish prime minister said.

“What is happening in Egypt today is unacceptable. Assault on protesters and civilians are unacceptable. These may lead to dangerous results whatever the reasons are,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry announced that a number of Muslim Brotherhood officials had been arrested. Their names have yet to be released.

Clashes also broke out elsewhere in Cairo and other provinces across the country, with police stations, government buildings and churches attacked or set ablaze.

In Suez, five people were killed in clashes and dozens more injured and in el-Arish, in the Sinai peninsula, assailants torched a church, according to a reportr in establishment news outlet al-Ahram.

Churches belonging to Egypt’s minority Coptic Christians were also torched in three southern provinces — Minya, Assiut and Sohag. In the city of Bani Suef south of Cairo, protesters set three police cars on fire. Farther south in the Islamist stronghold of Assiut, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of Morsi supporters gathered in the city center.

Other clashes broke out between Morsi supporters and security forces in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the Nile Delta provinces of Beheira, Sharqiya and Gharbiyah and in the oasis region of Fayoum southwest of Cairo.

Supporters of the Islamist president want him reinstated and are boycotting the military-sponsored political process, which includes amending the Islamist-backed constitution adopted last year and holding parliamentary and presidential elections early next year.

The assault came after days of warnings by the military-backed interim administration that replaced President Mohammed Morsi after he was ousted in a July 3 coup. The two sit-in camps at two major intersections on opposite sides of the Egyptian capital began in late June to show support for Morsi. After the coup, protesters there have demanded his reinstatement.

Regional television networks showed images of collapsed tents and burning tires at both sites, with ambulances on standby at the scene. They were also showing protesters being arrested and led away by the troops.

A security official said a total of 200 protesters were arrested from both sites. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

At least 250 people have died in clashes following Morsi’s July 3 ouster in a military coup.

The Egyptian Central Bank instructed commercial banks to close branches in areas affected by the chaos, a sign of alarm that the violence could spiral out of control. The Ministry of Antiquities also ordered the site of the Giza Pyramids closed to visitors along with the Egyptian museum in the heart of the Egyptian capital. The closures were a precaution effective only for Wednesday, it said.

The turmoil was the latest chapter a bitter standoff between Morsi’s supporters led by the Muslim Brotherhood and the leadership that has assumed the helm of the Arab world’s most populous country. The military ousted Morsi after millions of Egyptians took to the streets to call for him to step down, accusing him of giving the Brotherhood undue influence and failing to implement vital reforms or bolster the ailing economy.

The coup provoked similar protests by Morsi’s backers after he and other Brotherhood leaders were detained as divisions have deepened, dealing a major blow to hopes of a return to stability after the 2011 revolution that led to the ouster of autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak.

The deposed president has been held at an undisclosed location. Other Brotherhood leaders have been charged with inciting violence or conspiring in the killing of protesters.

“The world cannot sit back and watch while innocent men, women and children are being indiscriminately slaughtered. The world must stand up to the military junta’s crime before it is too late,” said a statement by the Brotherhood’s media office in London emailed to the AP in Cairo.

The smaller of the two camps was cleared of protesters by late morning, with most of them taking refuge in the nearby Orman botanical gardens on the campus of Cairo University and the zoo.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said security forces were chasing the protesters in the zoo. At one point, a dozen protesters, mostly men with beards wearing traditional Islamist garb, were seen handcuffed and sitting on a sidewalk under guard outside the university campus. The private ONTV network showed firearms and rounds of ammunition allegedly seized from protesters there.

Security forces later stormed the larger camp in the Cairo district of Nasr City and were closing in on the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque that has served as the epicenter of pro-Morsi campaign. Several wanted Brotherhood leaders were believed to be hiding inside the mosque.

The pro-Morsi Anti-Coup alliance claimed that security forces used live ammunition, but the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, said its forces only used tear gas and that they came under fire from the camp.

The Interior Ministry statement also warned that forces would deal firmly with protesters who were acting “irresponsibly,” suggesting that it would respond in kind if its men are fired upon. It said it would guarantee safe passage to all who want to leave the Nasr City site but would arrest those wanted for questioning by prosecutors