CAIRO, Sept 4 (Aswat Masriya) - Egyptian authorities has taken a policeman into custody on Sunday for shooting a microbus driver in the foot, Egypt's interior ministry said.

The policeman will be referred to the public prosecution.

In a statement, the ministry said that the microbus driver attacked a traffic policeman in 6th October city after the latter recorded a number of traffic violations against the driver, which escalated into a fight.

The ministry said that a number of driver intervened which prompted the policeman to use his weapon and shoot the microbus driver in the foot.

It added that the driver has a criminal record and was accused in 14 cases.

Last week, a policeman killed a microbus driver in the district of Maadi in Cairo.

According to a statement by the ministry then,  a fight erupted between two drivers, prompting the low-ranking policeman to intervene.

The policeman fired warning shots which "accidentally" hit one of the drivers and killed him, the ministry said.

In the aftermath of the incident, microbus drivers in the Maadi area started a strike, calling for retribution for their fellow driver.

Last April, a low-ranking policeman shot dead a tea vendor 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.

Similarly, a policeman shot dead a driver in the al-Darb al-Ahmar neighbourhood over the cost of loading goods in February.

The incidents sparked public outrage at the police and hundreds took to protest in Cairo's streets after the killings, 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.