A French citizen living in Egypt, who was detained by Cairo police just for breaking a night-time curfew, was later beaten to death by his cell mates, security officials said on Tuesday.
Police arrested the man in the upmarket Zamalek neighbourhood of the capital for violating the nightly curfew in force since the launch of a deadly crackdown on Islamist supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi on August 14.
Six cellmates are being kept in custody as part of an investigation into "bodily harm resulting in death," a judicial source said.
A post-mortem found that the Frenchman died from "internal haemorrhaging" and a "skull fracture," the security officials said.
The embassy added that it had asked for clarification from judicial authorities of the circumstances of the man's death and was still waiting for a reply.