Five demonstrators died overnight in the worst violence since Mohamed Morsi became Egypt’s first Islamist president in June.
The five were killed by gunfire or buckshot as nearly 350 others were wounded when allies and foes of Morsi clashed around the presidential palace in Cairo.
They started off by lobbing fire bombs and rocks at each other on Wednesday as their simmering standoff over the president’s expanded powers and a new constitution turned violent.
Morsi drew the wrath of the opposition and many in the magistrature by assuming exceptional powers under a November 22 decree.
Bloodied protesters were seen carried away as gunshots rang out and the rivals torched cars and set off fire crackers near the presidential palace, where opponents of Morsi had set up tents before his supporters drove them away.
Riot police were eventually sent in to break up the violence, but clashes still took place in side streets near the palace in the upscale Cairo neighbourhood of Heliopolis.
In the early hours of Thursday gunshots rang out intermittently and sporadic violence continued.
Many of the opposition had left and a few hundred protesters remained outside the palace.
The violence spread beyond the capital, with protesters torching the offices of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood in the Mediterranean port city of Ismailiya and in Suez, witnesses said.
Wirestory
Leave a Reply