One student was killed, several injured and at least 60 arrested on Saturday as students at the Cairo campus of al-Azhar University battled with security forces. At least two buildings were set ablaze.

The day was the first of end-of-term examinations at the university, the epicentre of recent anti-government demonstrations led by Islamist youth. Calls for a boycott of the exams appear to have been the starting point of the violence.

There were conflicting reports as to whether or not student protesters had attempted to disrupt exam schedules and prevent students from entering buildings to sit tests.

The state-owned al-Ahram newspaper reported that security forces used teargas to disperse students who were stopping others taking their exams. The violence followed the deaths of at least five people during protests in several cities on Friday.

The official Facebook page of Students Against the Coup, a campus-based youth movement, showed a photograph of a charred dormitory on the campus.

The caption blamed "the dogs of the Interior [ministry]", and claimed that incendiary bombs had been fired at the building by police, "causing a very big fire" that "burned everything to ashes".

CBC, a non-state-owned television station, broadcast film footage from the campus, showing broken windows and charred interiors flooded with water after the fires were extinguished. The news report carried the onscreen logo "Egypt Fights Terrorism", a slogan in line with the military-led government's campaign against dissent and militant violence that has spread across Egypt since the 3 July overthrow of the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi.

Youssof Salhen, 21, spokesperson for Students Against the Coup, a movement of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated students who have called for the reinstatement of Morsi, said 14 of those arrested were women.

"We are not going to stop [protesting] until we achieve justice for those who have died, and those who have been jailed," Salhen told the Observer. "The security forces and the coup forces will continue to try to frighten students for trying to exercise their rights to peaceful protest, but we will continue."

He claimed that police and "thugs" had stormed the al-Azhar campus "to beat up and detain students". He described the "thugs" as civilians paid by police to use violence against protesters. Salhen identified the dead student as Khaled al-Haddad, and said he had been struck by a bullet fired by police. Haddad, believed to be 21, was a student in the faculty of commerce. At least eight other students have died during protests at al-Azhar since the overthrow of Morsi.

A second student, Tamim Mohamed, was hit in the head and was said to be undergoing surgery at a Cairo hospital.

On Wednesday, the military-led interim government announced that the Muslim Brotherhood was a "terrorist organisation". A day later, the state said anyone found guilty of being a member or supporter of the group could serve five years in prison.

The government also released three telephone numbers for Egyptians to use to report on suspected Muslim Brothers.