CAIRO, May 14 (Aswat Masriya) -  A number of residents of the Luxor district of Tiba have set two police cars on fire and hurled stones at the officers, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

The ministry added in statements to state-run news agency MENA, that additional security forces were sent to the site of the incident to "control and disperse" the angry crowd.

According to the ministry's narrative, security forces were investigating a report in the Tiba, Luxor police station, when they noticed a motorcycle passing by without license plates and arrested the two men riding the vehicle.

Angered by the arrest, the residents gathered and began throwing stones at the officers and setting fire to the police cars.

The ministry denied media reports that residents of one of the Tiba villages detained two of the officers.   

The ministry said that it will take the necessary legal procedures, and notify public prosecution to begin investigating the incident.

Several incidents of police brutality have sparked anger among different sects of people over the past few months. 

In April, a low-ranking policeman shot dead a tea vendor and injured two more people, in the upscale suburban neighbourhood of Rehab, after a quarrel over his refusal to pay for a cup of tea. 

The incident was preceded by another in February when a policeman shot dead a driver in the Downtown neighbourhood of al-Darb al-Ahmar over the cost of loading goods.

Police brutality was one of the triggers of the Jan. 25, 2011 uprising, sparked by protests on Police Day in Egypt aimed to draw attention to the police's use of excessive, at times fatal, violence.