CAIRO, June 2, (Aswat Masriya) - A low-ranking police officer who fired gunshots at civilians in Beni Suef, injuring four, was arrested shortly afterwards on Thursday, the interior ministry's media spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said in an official statement on the interior ministry's Facebook page that the policeman injured the civilians in a neighbourhood feud.

An argument took place between the low-ranking police officer and his neighbour, which escalated until the officer shot the man, and continued shooting until he injured four civilians.

The statement added that the police officer had his weapons taken away from him. 

Last April a low-ranking police officer shot and killed a tea vendor in the Rehab neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cairo, which marked yet another in a series of incidents that stirred up public anger over purported police violence in Egypt.

Just one day after the incident, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with interior ministry officials and stressed that it is important to deter "irresponsible" behavior of policemen on the street.

Human rights workers, activists, and ordinary citizens have largely scrutinised police brutality in Egypt over the past few months. The interior ministry, however, maintains that these are "isolated incidents" that do not reflect the entire ministry. 

On Feb. 18, a policeman shot dead a driver in the al-Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood over the cost of loading goods.

The incident also sparked public outrage at the police and hundreds took to protest in Cairo's streets after the killing, in an expression of anger that has become rare in the past few years. 

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, force.