The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen was wounded by shotgun pellets while covering escalating violence in the Egyptian capital.

Bowen was pictured with what appeared to be a patch of dried blood on his left cheek while being bandaged around the top of his head following the incident in Cairo on Friday.

He later tweeted that he was "fine" and returned to cover the unfolding shooting outside the Republican Guards HQ.

"Thanks for the messages. I've been hit by a couple of shotgun pellets. Am fine and heading out," said Bowen on Twitter. The BBC said it was aware of the incident.

The BBC's respected Middle East editor has been at the heart of the action in Cairo as the military coup dislodged Mohamed Morsi as president. On Friday, Bowen was near demonstrators in the capital as Egyptian troops opened fire at supporters of the ousted Morsi.

He reported on Friday afternoon: "I saw it all. There was a large demonstration outside the officers' club of the Presidential club – a compound which Morsi, the deposed president, they believe he is being held at.

"As the crowd got angrier and angrier it started to surge forward and someone opened fire straight away from the military side. Before they had used any kind of teargas they resorted to live fire. Initially I thought it was in the air and then I saw the weapons were levelled. After that I saw a man went down. I saw the body, bloodied, being carried away."

Bowen became the BBC's Middle East editor in 2005 having been Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem from 1995 to 2000. Friday's incident is not his first scrape with danger.

In 2000, he was covering the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon when an Israeli tank commander fired a round of bullets into his car. Bowen was unharmed, but his friend and fixer, Abed Takoushm, was killed.