Thousands of angry Egyptians gathered Friday outside the Interior Ministry in Cairo in continuing protests stemming from a deadly stampede at a soccer match.
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An Egyptian protester displays spent tear gas canisters and shotgun rounds during clashes with security forces near the Interior Ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. Volleys of tear gas left a white cloud over Cairo's Tahrir Square and surrounding streets in the vicinity of Egypt's Interior Ministry, in the fourth day of clashes between security forces and rock-throwing youth protesting a deadly soccer riot. (AP) |
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An Egyptian protester is caught in tear gas during clashes with security forces near the Egyptian Interior Ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. (AP) |
At least four people were reported killed Thursday and Friday in clashes between demonstrators and police, CNN reported.
Protesters in Cairo waved al-Ahly soccer club flags. The violence Wednesday in Port Said began when fans of al-Masry, the local team, stormed the field.
“The people demand the downfall of the field marshal,” protesters called.
Thousands of injuries have been reported. A government spokesman said protesters stormed a building in Cairo and were using the roof to fire pellets and throw Molotov cocktails, killing at least one person.
In Suez, a health official said police shot and killed two people Thursday and wounded 15 others after 3,000 demonstrators protested in front of police headquarters, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Friday, while officials said a soldier died after being run over by a truck.
The deaths of the soccer fans at a match Wednesday rallied thousands of protesters demanding justice for the dead and an end to Egypt’s military rule -- in place since President Hosni Mubarak was forced from power a year ago.
Protesters Friday in Cairo held their ground outside the Interior Ministry building, al-Ahram Online reported.
The public’s ire was echoed by a newly elected Parliament and many of the members demanded Egypt’s police and military be held accountable.
“Our revolution is in great danger,” Speaker Mohammed al-Katatni warned.
Interior Ministry officials said Cairo demonstrators tore down the cement and barbed-wire barricades built recently to protect the ministry’s vast security headquarters.
The ministry urged protesters “to listen to the sound of wisdom ... at these critical moments.”
Many demonstrators accused supporters of Mubarak, whose sons Gamal and Alaa had close ties to Egypt’s soccer establishment, of instigating the Wednesday violence at the Port Said stadium.
At least 74 people, mostly Ahly fans, were stabbed, beaten and crushed to death when extremist Masry fans rushed the soccer field at the end of the game and attacked Ahly supporters with knives and metal bars, spectators said.
Survivors said the attack may have been government, police or Mubarak-crony revenge against Ahly supporters.
Diehard Ahly fans, known as “ultras,” played a key role in anti-Mubarak protests during the early days of the Egyptian revolution, helping beat back a group of mercenaries, some on horseback and camels, who attacked protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square a year ago.
In a move many activists point to as proof of an orchestrated police conspiracy, guards cut the stadium lights just as the violence began and then closed the stadium’s exit gates, trapping escaping fans, witnesses told The Wall Street Journal.
The Interior Ministry said it interrogated more than 50 people suspected of instigating the clashes, including a dozen minors.
The ruling military council, which dismissed criticism that implicated it in negligence, called for three days of national mourning and accepted the resignation of the Port Said governor.
The government suspended the district’s director of security and the chief of its detective unit. State media reported both men were later detained by police.
The Egyptian Football Association board resigned and the association suspended league play indefinitely. (UPI)
