While the United Nations was still gathering information, "it appears that hundreds of people were killed or wounded in clashes between security forces and demonstrators," Ban s spokesperson said in a statement.
Troops opened fire on demonstrators in clashes that brought chaos to areas of Cairo and appeared sure to further polarize Egypt s 84 million people between backers of Mursi and those who opposed his brief rule.
"The Secretary-General regrets that Egyptian authorities chose instead to use force to respond to the ongoing demonstrations," Ban s spokesperson said.
"While recognizing that political clocks do not run backwards, the Secretary-General also believes firmly that violence and incitement from any side are not the answers to the challenges Egypt faces," the statement said.
Mursi became Egypt s first freely elected leader in June 2012, but failed to tackle deep economic malaise and worried many Egyptians with apparent efforts to tighten Islamist rule.
Liberals and young Egyptians staged huge rallies demanding that he resign, and the army said it removed him last month in response to the will of the people.
More than 300 people have already died in political violence since Mursi s overthrow, including dozens of supporters killed by security forces in two separate earlier incidents in Cairo.
The unrest has extended political and economic turmoil since a 2011 uprising that ended 30 years of autocratic rule by U.S.-backed President Hosni Mubarak, and the country is now more deeply divided than any time for many years.
"With Egypt s rich history and diversity of views and experiences, it is not unusual for Egyptians to disagree on the best approach forward," Ban s spokesperson said, adding that Ban felt what was important was "that differing views be expressed respectfully and peacefully."
Apart from this, Turkey, Germany, Italy and Jordan also have denounced undue crackdown against pro-Morsi Ikhwan activists in the name of law and order.
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TURKEY
Turkey s government, which has been consistently critical of the military-backed ouster of Morsi, harshly criticized the crackdown. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan s office called the crackdown "a serious blow to the hopes of a return to democracy." It also blamed other unnamed countries for encouraging the government after Morsi s ouster on July 3.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned that Egypt could descend into chaos, comparing the clashes to the crackdown in Syria that precipitated a civil war.
Turkey itself has been criticized in recent months for heavy-handed police tactics in clamping down on protests against Erdogan s government that included firing tear gas canisters directly at protesters. Hundreds of Turks in Ankara and Istanbul protested against the crackdown.
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GERMANY
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the government was "extremely worried" about the "very dangerous" escalation of violence in Egypt, indirectly criticizing the leadership for its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood while at the same time urging an end to violence.
"We expect from the transitional government and the Egyptian authorities that they allow peaceful demonstrations just as we expect from the other political forces that they distance themselves clearly from violence, that they don t demand violence and don t act violently."
Chancellor Angela Merkel s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the "decisive principle" must be "that the human rights of all Egyptians, independent of their political direction and conviction, have to be respected and protected."
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JORDAN
Jordan s Muslim Brotherhood has urged its Egyptian peers to continue protests, saying their victory will help the fundamentalist group rise to power elsewhere in the Arab world.
A harshly-worded statement by the Brotherhood s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, also warns Egypt s military rulers that they have fallen into a "conspiracy" hatched by the United States and Israel to weaken Muslims.
"Today is your day, and upon its outcome, the future of Egypt, Arabs and Muslims will be determined," according to a statement issued before 200 Brotherhood activists staged a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman.
The protesters rebuked Egypt s military rulers as a "tool for corrupt and tyrant military regimes."
Jordan s police sealed off the area around the embassy saying they expect the numbers to swell later.
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ITALY
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino appealed to all sides in Egypt to do what they can to immediately stop the explosion of violence and "avoid a bloodbath."
Bonino expressed deep sorrow for the loss of human lives.
"I had expressed the hope that the squares with the sit-ins be emptied" through an agreement among all sides, and "not with the intervention of police forces, which doesn t help the search for a solution to the political crisis," Bonino said.
She added that it was essential that security forces "exercise maximum self-control; likewise, everyone must avoid every incitement to violence." Bonino renewed an appeal for the resumption of a "process of national dialogue."
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