Egypt’s Health Ministry updated Wednesday figures on the dead and injured in clashes between supporters and opponents of Hosni Mubarak’s ruling regime in Cairo. For now, the death toll stands at five, with over 800 seriously injured, Egypt’s Health Minister Ahmed Farid told national Egyptian television.
Egypt’s Health Ministry updated Wednesday figures on the dead and injured in clashes between supporters and opponents of Hosni Mubarak’s ruling regime in Cairo. For now, the death toll stands at five, with over 800 seriously injured, Egypt’s Health Minister Ahmed Farid told national Egyptian television.
In the meantime, medics who evacuated the wounded from Tahrir Square, the scene of the unrest, said the injured number between 1,000 and 1,500. Over 800 people were sent to hospitals, with the rest refusing hospitalization and receiving treatment on the spot.
The riots have already claimed at least 300 victims, with more than 4,000 injured, according to the UN.
On Wednesday afternoon, thousands of pro-Mubarak supporters converged on Tahrir Square, already crowded with several thousand regime protesters.
Clashes suddenly erupted between the two groups.
People pelted each other with stones or beat their opponents with sticks. As darkness fell, Molotov cocktails were being thrown.
A prayer in the midst of a ruined square.
The Egyptian army began arresting those involved in clashes in downtown Cairo on Thursday morning. The exact number was not reported. It is also unknown exactly who the military is detaining – pro- or anti-Mubarak demonstrators.
Opposition supporters have seized the nearby Sadat metro station and are using it as an improvized prison for captured opponents, according to the Associated Press.
Clashes are fought not only on Tahrir Square, but also around it: on nearby streets, embankments and bridges.
Civil unrest in Cairo.
Civil unrest in Cairo
Civil unrest in Cairo
Protesters demanding Hosni Mubarak’s departure after 30 years in power. The protests, which also call for economic and political reform, started in Egypt on January 25 and are continuing.
The unrest is accompanied by plundering and torchings.
