• 21:09
  • Wednesday ,14 August 2013
العربية

Live updates: Egyptian police attack Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo

By-Ahram

Top Stories

12:08

Wednesday ,14 August 2013

Live updates: Egyptian police attack Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Cairo

11:55  Senior health ministry official Mohamed Sultan said in a statement to state news agency MENA that the death toll from the sit-in dispersals had reached 13, five of which were security forces – two officers and three conscripts.

Sultan said the injury toll had reached 98, including many from live fire, shotgun pellets and teargas.
 
The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said in their latest statement that the Rabaa Al-Adawiya field hospital has over 500 dead and 9,000 injured.
 
All figures are impossible to verify at the moment, especially as security forces are making in hard for reporters to access the sit-ins. However, an AFP reporter earlier counted 43 bodies at the morgue at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya field hospital.
 
11:45 The interior ministry says that security monitoring has revealed that leaders of Muslim Brotherhood have "given orders to their members in the governorates to attack police stations."
 
In a statement published by state news agency MENA, the ministry said that the Brotherhood has already started "implementing the plan in Cairo, Beni Suef, Minya, Assiut and Sohag." The ministry's forces are combating these attempts, it said, and warned citizens against approaching "any police facilities."
 
11:40 There are reports of ongoing protests and clashes all over Egypt.
 
In Alexandria, hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood are reportedly clashing with security forces on the corniche, the main sea-front road. Brotherhood members have attacked security forces with stones and pellet fire, while the police respond with teargas. Several public buses have also been set on fire by protesters.
 
In Suez, pro-Morsi protesters fired at an army truck during a march headed to the governorate headquarters and the local security directorate. According to Ahram Arabic, Morsi supporters also set on fire a Franciscan school as well as a number of shops and cars, all located on Al-Geish Street.
 
In Ismailiya, Ahram’s Khaled Lotfy says that pro-Morsi protesters have been throwing Molotov cocktails at court buildings while security forces attempt to control the fire and secure other governmental buildings in the area.
 
In Upper Egypt,clashes between protesters and the police continue in Assiut with pro-Morsi protesters throwing rocks and setting a police car on fire in Mahata Square, according to Islam Radwan, Ahram’s reporter in the city.
 
In Wadi El-Gedid governorate in Egypt’s Western Desert, dozens of pro-Morsi supporters headed to the local post office to close it down and attack security forces there, according to Mahmoud Abbas, a post office manager. He told Ahram’s Khaled Karish that locals in the area stopped the attack and the protesters headed on to the governorate building.
 
11:35 The Strong Egypt Party has said that it holds the Egyptian authorities responsible for the “deaths of the victims” today. Spokesman Ahmed Imam said that the dispersal of the sit-ins is a "crime" that will lead to more violence. The party, which is Islamist-oriented, took part in the 30 June protests against Morsi but rejected his ouster by the military, describing it as a "coup."
 
The April 6 Youth Movement blames “the army, interior ministry and the Muslim Brotherhood” for today's bloodshed, saying on its Facebook page that the interior ministry does not mind if people die so long as it “consolidates its control” and that the Brotherhood also do not care about lives but only about “reclaiming power.”
 
11:30 Clashes continue at Rabaa where security forces are inside the camp, with the sounds of gunfire echoing in the area.
 
Egypt's interior ministry said protesters on nearby rooftops and inside the camp had opened fire at security forces who continued to take down tents and makeshift barriers erected by pro-Morsi protesters, Aswat Masriya reported
 
11:20 A priest named as Ihab told Ahram’s Haggag El-Husseini that the Dalga church in Deir Mawat located in Upper Egypt’s Minya governorate is under attack.
 
The main Coptic Orthodox Church in Sohag city, also in Upper Egypt, has been set ablaze by pro-Morsi protesters, reports Aswat Masriya. It is located close to Thaqafa Square, where thousands are protesting against the sit-ins' disperal.
 
11:15 Egyptian police on Wednesday morning attacked two large sit-ins being held by supporters of Mohamed Morsi in Greater Cairo.
 
The smaller sit-in at Al-Nahda Square in Giza was completely dispersed according to the interior ministry, while the larger demonstration at Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque, across the river in east Cairo, is surrounded by police and under heavy fire. Many key highways around Cairo are blocked off by security forces, particularly those leading to the sit-ins.
 
The death toll from the attacks is hard to ascertain; the health ministry has reported ten dead across Cairo in the incidents, but their reports are based on figures from public hospitals, and do not include those bodies that have yet to reach official healthcare facilities.
 
At the Rabaa field hospital, an AFP correspondent reported seeing 43 dead bodies.
 
Egyptian state television has said that two police personnel, an officer and a conscript, were killed and six wounded during the attempt to clear out the two sit-ins.
 
There are also reports of violence in the middle-class Giza district of Mohandeseen and in Maydan Al-Giza, in the Giza district, between Morsi supporters and police.