Clashes between pig rearers and policemen broke out on Sunday in Manshiyet Nasser, a shanty district east of Cairo, over the government's action of culling all the pigs, pig rearers on the scene told Xinhua.

"About 5,000 pig farmers clashed with the police forces in Manshiyet Nasser shantytown on Sunday as the government wants to cull all the pigs in Egypt," Atta, a pig rearer on the scene, said.

"There are about 30 police cars, and about 1,000 policemen who started to fire tear gas towards us," Samir Kamel, another pig rearer on the scene said.

The rearers responded by throwing stones and glass bottles towards policemen.

"The still going-on clashes came because the government refused to compensate the rearers," Samir added.

"About 12 protests got minor injuries," he added.

In a step aimed at containing the situation, the government officials are set to hold a meeting on Sunday with rearers' representatives to discuss the compensation, he said.

The Egyptian government decided last week to slaughter all the pigs in the country immediately in an attempt to avert the outbreak of the fatal influenza A/H1N1, which has hit different parts of the world.

So far, no case has been reported in the country.

It is estimated that Egypt, about 90 percent of whose population are Muslims, has some 350,000 pigs, which are raised by the Christian minority who eat pork in Cairo, Giza, Qalubia and October 6 governorates.

(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2009)