Hundreds back in Tahrir Square after deadly night

Police seized the square but were beaten back by protesters who triumphantly retook it Hundreds of Egyptian protesters were back in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Sunday following a day of deadly violence and sporadic clashes between protesters and police. Fresh clashes broke out on the outskirts of the square, as anti-riot police fired regular rounds of tear gas and dozens of protesters set up barricades on the edges of the plaza, AFP reported.
Makeshift hospitals were set up in mosques around Tahrir Square in which demonstrators were receiving treatment for tear gas inhalation, and injuries from rubber bullets and birdshot.
Throughout the night, protesters and police clashed in Cairo and two other Egyptian cities killing two people and wounding more than 600 as the Egyptian government on Saturday called on demonstrators to let reason prevail.
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters while protesters broke chunks of cement from pavements and hurled them at the riot police in the landmark Tahrir Square, in scenes reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak from three decades of power in February.
“What has been happening since this morning is dangerous and has a direct impact on how the country and the revolution will fare,” the government said in a statement read on state television.
“Peaceful demonstrations are an inalienable constitutional right” but “the fact that things turned out this way ... means that everybody must rapidly return to reason and responsibility,” the military-controlled government added.
It said that “the circumstances (that led to) the incidents” were being investigated and the conclusions of the inquiry would be “presented to the people in a transparent and clear way within a few days”.
“We are at the crossroads and just before legislative elections at home and abroad, the most important moment of the revolution, which implies that reason must prevail and that the interests of the country and revolution must come first,” it added.
State news agency MENA quoted the health ministry’s spokesman as saying 676 people had been hurt in Cairo and that Ahmed Mahmoud, a 23-year-old demonstrator, died in hospital. MENA reported another death in Egypt’s second city Alexandria, Baha Eddin Mohamed Hussein, 25, hit by a rubber bullet.
The riot police attempted to break up a lengthy sit-in organized by groups demanding a quick transition to civilian rule and an end to Tantawi’s military council, which replaced the Mubarak regime. Police had lost control of protesters in Tahrir twice in the day, according to reports.
A blaze broke out at around midnight at the huge Mogamma state administration building overlooking Tahrir as the square remained flooded with Friday’s protesters.
The army stayed away from the fighting.
One of the protesters, Ali Abdel Aziz, said security forces beat up people indiscriminately.
“They beat us harshly, they didn’t care for either men or women. The interior ministry must take responsibility. We have one demand, the military council must go,” said the 32-year-old accountancy professor.
Protesters fear a potential return to power by members of Mubarak’s now-dissolved National Democratic Party.
“We didn’t have a revolution so the people we removed could come back to parliament,” said 30-year-old activist Ahmed Abol Enein.
“None of the revolution’s demands have been met,” he added.
“We need a transfer of power to civilians. Everything that is happening shows the military wants to stay in power.”
The military, in charge since Mubarak’s resignation on February 11, says it will hand over power after a presidential election, which has yet to be scheduled.
Parliamentary polls are to start on November 28.
The health ministry said that about 750 people were wounded in the clashes in Tahrir Square, epicentre of the 18 days of protests that ousted Mubarak, as demonstrations spread to Alexandria, Aswan and Suez.
The interior ministry said 40 police officers were among the injured this weekend.
A policeman on an armored car shot rubber bullets into the Tahrir Square crowd, striking an AFP journalist in the forehead and shoulder, and a Western photographer in the face“We will never be scared again. They can shoot at us all they want,” protester Nasma Abdel Azim said.
Volleys of hissing tear-gas canisters landed among protesters close to parliament, on the south side of Tahrir as protesters skirmished with riot police.
Men on motorcycles and a three-wheeled car ferried the wounded to a makeshift clinic in the square, where protesters wounded by rubber bullets were bandaged.
Medics on Tahrir Square told AFP they had treated several people for eye injuries from rubber bullets.
The television said 40 of the wounded were police officers and that 18 “troublemakers” had been arrested.
The liberal April 6 Youth movement said the interior minister should quit for ordering the use of force against a peaceful protest.
Protests also took place in other cities including Aswan in the south, Alexandria and Suez on the Red Sea, where 10 people including seven demonstrators were injured, a security official said.
In Alexandria and Suez, police fired tear-gas grenades to disperse the demonstrators, official news agency MENA reported.
Protests erupted in other cities. About 800 people gathered in front of the security directorate in Egypt’s second city Alexandria and chanted: “Interior Ministry officials are thugs.”
A witness heard repeated gunfire in the area. It was not clear whether the shots were live bullets. One person covered in blood was carried off to hospital on a motorcycle.
About 1,000 gathered outside a police station in the eastern city of Suez, threw stones at it and tried to force their way in. Police fired tear gas and shot into the air.
Protesters in Suez tore down banners of former members of Mubarak’s disbanded party who are running in the election.
Liberal groups are dismayed by the military trials of thousands of civilians and the army’s failure to scrap a hated emergency law.