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More Updates from Al Jazeera Live Blog. All times local Cairo time, Thursday.

5:19pm Media in the line of fire in Egypt - Al Jazeera's online producer reports on how domestic and foreign journalists have come under siege amid the turmoil in Egypt. 

5:16pm Egypt's Central Bank has imposed restrictions on the amount of cash that people are allowed to withdraw.

5:12pm Three Al Jazeera journalists have been arrested. Many others are in their hotel and say that there is a strong military presence outside.

5:08pm A few pro-democracy protesters have been injured by shooting in Tahrir Square. Still not clear who fired. More updates to follow.

4:57pm Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian vice-president says that they "will release all the detainees that have not committed any act of violence". He also says that "the whole constitution is subject to change".

4:30pm Al Jazeera correspondents report that clashes continue between pro-democracy protesters and the Mubarak loyalists who are reported to have continuously instigated confrontations.

4:15pm Group of 'thugs' just crashed through a phalanx of pro-democracy supporters shielding behind sheet metal on 6th of October bridge - soon after prime ministers promises that violence will not be repeated. No sign of army still.

4:10pm Ahmad Shafiq, the Egyptian prime minister, apologized, and vowed that violence will not be repeated on the streets of Egypt. Says an investigation will be launched into the violence, but calls for Mubarak to step down are "unacceptable".

4:06pm The tanks that were guarding the over-pass are now gone and most of the soldiers have pulled back from the battle lines. Tense stand off now between pro-democracy protesters and the Mubarak loyalists.

3:59pm Pro-democracy protesters have pushed forward their barricades about 20 metres and have taken over the 6th of October bridge and are moving towards Ramsey street.

3:45pm The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said that security forces went into two human rights groups, Hisham Mubarak and the Egyptian center for social and economic rights, detained their employees and arrested two employees at the one organisation.

3:38pm Al Jazeera's web producer took this video an hour ago - it shows army firing in the air to prevent pro-democracy protesters from moving forward.

UPDATE 3:15 a.m. PST (1:15 a.m. in Cairo): As the country waits for Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik to speak, protestors in Tahrir Square are being guarded from pro-Mubarak demonstrators--many carrying weapons--by the Egyptian army. Isolated skirmishes are occuring at protests country-wide, but nothing as bad as the violence on Wednesday.

UPDATE 1:55 a.m. PST (11:55 a.m. in Cairo): Reuters reports that opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has rejected an offer to chat from Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, saying there's nothing to talk about until President Hosni Mubarak resigns. Yesterday, Mubarak said he would not be open to any sort of discussions until those protesting against his rule cleared the streets.

Several European leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's David Cameron and France's Nicolas Sarkozy released a joint statement, ordering an immediate change in Egyptian leadership.

In other news, an explosion minutes ago at a building in an industrial area in Turkey's capital of Ankara has left some injured and trapped under rubble.

UPDATE 1:26 a.m. PST (11:26 a.m. in Cairo): Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya report that Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik has apologized for violence against protestors in the last 24 hours, and will be meeting with the cabinet at some point today. A public statement may come at that time. There are rumors Shafik may resign because of disgust with the violence. Shafik has pledged to investigate the violence--believed to brought on by busloads of paid Mubarak supporters. The government denies accusations that they mobilized the supporters.

UPDATE 10:51 p.m. PST (8:51 a.m. in Cairo): The Egyptian Ministry of Health confirms that at least five people were killed overnight during fiery battles between anti-government protestors and pro-government security forces. Egyptian state TV puts the number of wounded or injured at 1,000. Many of those hurt were pelted by rocks or beaten by metal rods, the health minister told Egypt state television.

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Machine-gun blasts mixed with Thursday’s morning prayers heralded fears that after days of peaceful protest in Egypt, the country now risks being plunged into mass bloodshed as anti-government protesters redouble their efforts to push back violent attacks launched by the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Fierce and sustained machine-gun fire is still ringing out early Thursday morning in Cairo and crowds are gathering for more confrontations after the bloodiest day in recent history – leaving at least four dead and more than 600 wounded.

Other reports speak of six people being killed just in the past few hours, but there are no confirmed numbers.  Eyewitnesses say that live ammunition was fired into the crow. Some allege that shots came from the headquarters of the ruling party.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has phoned Egypt’s new vice-president to condemn what she called the “shocking” use of violence. Late Wednesday night in the U.S., the State Department advised American citizens to leave Egypt as soon as possible.

No one expects anything except more fighting on Thursday and perhaps a Gotterdammerung of a confrontation on Friday – the traditional day of massive Arab protests.  Barricades have already been constructed by both sides and the mood is volatile, to say the least.  Protesters have reportedly seized some of the strategic roads and overpasses leading into the main staging area of the revolt.

For more than 17 hours, beginning mid-day Wednesday and running through to Thursday morning, Cairo’s central Tahrir Square was the scene of fiery and bloody clashes led by armed, government-backed plainclothes squads.

Riding on camels and horses and marching in military formation, the pro-government gangs and squads wielded machetes and threw firebombs at protesters who were gathered in the square.  While both sides attacked and counter-attacked, reports say that the anti-government forces retained much of the initiative and were able to repel the charges launched against them.  As many as 10,000 were mobilized into the pro-government squads who also fanned out through the city , blocked traffic and menaced all suspected of opposing the regime.

[Stay updated with the 24/7 live blog from Al Jazeera English]

The military stood by idly as the gangs attacked and threw Molotov cocktails, sometimes from rooftops around the square. The passive posture of the army raised fears that it might still be fundamentally loyal to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak who has refused to cede power until new elections scheduled for September.  The Egyptian government has also announced that it will now refuse to negotiate with any opposition representatives until protesters stand down.

CNN’s Cairo based reporter, Ben Wedeman, says: “This is clearly a directed operation from someone in government."  CNN was among the news organizations physically attacked by the pro-government gangs.

The New York Times reported: "The deployment of plainclothes forces paid by Mr. Mubarak’s ruling party — men known here as baltageya — has been a hallmark of the Mubarak government, and there were many signs that the violence was carefully choreographed.

The Mubarak supporters emerged from buses. They carried the same flags and the same printed signs, and they all escalated their actions, from shouting to violence, at exactly the same moment: 2:15 p.m. The protesters showed journalists police and ruling party identification cards that they said had been taken from Mubarak supporters who had been caught infiltrating Tahrir Square, also known as Liberation Square, and detained in a holding pen."

Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the scene said the mood among protesters was that the worst was yet to come: “The mood there is ‘pretty fatalistic’ with the anti-government protesters certain that the pro-Mubarak forces are there to eliminate them.”

Opposition leaders, however, have said they will not back down as the regime lashes out and have declared a fight to the finish.  Some are terming Friday as Departure Day – the day Mubarak will be forced to flee.

As violence erupted Wednesday, the Obama White House toughened its rhetoric saying it was time for Mubarak to show the world "exactly who he is" by quickly leading a peaceful transition to democracy.

The U.S. administration, however, is being left with options that range from bad to worse. Though the U.S. has been the biggest political and financial supporter of Mubarak, it now finds itself with decreasing clout. Egyptian officials have reacted with red-hot anger to prodding by Washington that Mubarak begin an immediate “transition” to “real democracy” as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently put it.

Indeed, some observers believe that the government-backed violence of the last day was a way of Mubarak snubbing U.S. and Western efforts to nudge him out of the power.

On the other hand, it is likely that Thursday will see stepped up condemnation of Mubarak from the international community and heightened demands that he immediately abandon the position of absolute power he has held since 1981.

The uprising in Egypt continues to rattle the entire region with a new wave of protests being planned in almost all of the neighboring countries, all of them ruled by authoritarian regimes.

Additional reporting from Paresh Dave, Ryan Faughnder, Mary Slosson, Olga Khazan, Benjamin Gottlieb, Ton Dotan, Arezou Rezvani, Callie Schweitzer, and Braden Holly.

More Neon Tommy coverage of the Egyptian Revolution:

Obama on Egypt: “Orderly Transition Must Begin Now.”

Podcast: The Role of Egyptian Women

Egypt’s Pain Has Been Al Jazeera’s Gain

Infographic: Why Are People In Egypt Protesting?

Egypt’s New Vice President And His Ties To CIA

See a dramatic photo gallery from the battle of Tahrir Square.