At least 1 killed in Cairo clashes

At least one person was killed in clashes that erupted downtown the Egyptian capital on Thursday afternoon, Egyptian media reported. Dozens of civilians with Molotov cocktails have set light to several parked vehicles beside Cairo’s Nile City Towers and attacked parts of the Nile-front complex, the state-run al-Ahram Online reported. Security and emergency services rushed to the scene of the clashes in a bid to quell a potentially flammable situation. According to al-Ahram daily, the assailants came by three microbuses and several motorcycles then blocked the street after a man had been gunned down by a police officer. Witnesses said that tear gas dispensed by Central Security Forces into the towers has spread into the residential slum area, Egypt’s Independent reported, pointing out that live ammunition may have been used during the clashes. The Egyptian daily cited witnesses as saying that the violence broke out when one of the victims, Amr al-Bunni, was refused pay he had earned at the towers doing temporary security work. Tower security guards shot the Boulaq resident, witnesses from the nearby slum told Egypt Independent. A young girl also suffocated from inhaling tear gas fired by security forces, residents said. The tower has previously come under attack from area residents angry over the death of a five-year-old boy on June 27, when the tower staff reportedly refused to supply them with water to put out a fire in one of the shacks.