CAIRO, Oct 18 (Aswat Masriya) – Security forces arrested eight "terrorist cells" involving 52 defendants in possession of weapons, highly explosive material and large sums of money, the ministry of interior announced on Saturday.

The arrests took place in the governorates of Giza, Minya, Daqahliyah, Alexandria, Fayoum, and Sharqiya, the ministry added in a press statement.

Three policemen were killed as a result of an RPG attack launched by militants on a patrol car in North Sinai's capital city Thursday night.

Earlier on Tuesday, a bomb went off near the Supreme Court in downtown Cairo, injuring 15 people.

Bombings and shootings have surged since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last year.

Major attacks, mainly targeting security forces and installations, have been mostly claimed by radical Al-Qaida-inspired groups based in the Sinai Peninsula.

The ministry of interior also said on Saturday that it arrested five "Muslim Brotherhood cadres" during an "organisational" meeting held to plot for "stalling education and spreading chaos among students."

The Cairo-based Democracy Index reported on Saturday the occurrence of 58 student protests during the first week of the new academic year, at the rate of almost 10 protests per day. 

Ninety-eight percent of the reported student protests were peaceful, Democracy Index said. It added, nevertheless, that the violence with which security officials met the protests turned 30 percent of such protests to acts of violence and confrontations.

University campuses have witnessed unprecedented violence throughout the past academic year, with at least 16 students killed amid on-campus protests, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression's Student Observatory.