Egypt carries out first hanging

Egypt on yesterday carried out the first death sentence handed down over the violence that erupted after the army's 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the interior ministry said.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been sentenced to death after speedy mass trials, which the United Nations has described as "unprecedented in recent history".

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Mahmoud Ramadan, who was hanged at 7 am (0500 GMT), was the "first to be executed of those involved in violent clashes," ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said.

A court in Egypt's second city Alexandria sentenced Ramadan and another Morsi supporter to death in 2014 after convicting them of throwing youths off an apartment block, killing one of them.

A government crackdown on Morsi's supporters left hundreds dead and thousands detained and put on trial.

Hundreds were killed in a single day on August 14, 2013, when police stormed two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo.

The ousted president is himself facing multiple trials on charges that carry the death penalty.