Protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's rule
are seen during clashes with riot police near Tahrir Square
in Cairo yesterday. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Protesters wearing surgical masks, scarves and hoods
clashed with police wielding tear gas as violence in the
Egyptian city of Port Said entered its fifth day.
The city at the northern end of the Suez Canal has been a
flashpoint since January, with violent protests over death
sentences given to residents in connection with a football
stadium riot in which more than 70 people died last year.
Security has deteriorated in Egypt since the overthrow of
President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising two years ago,
with some of the worst unrest in Port Said, an industrial
city where residents complain of being marginalised.
Youths threw stones and made lewd gestures at a line of
police officers who released smoke bombs into streets strewn
with rubbish, television footage from pan-Arab channel
al-Arabiya showed.
At least six people have been killed in this week's protests
in the Mediterranean city, including three policemen.
The security services in the city told Reuters they were
ramping up protection of the central prison and Suez Canal
offices before a court hearing on Saturday, which is expected
to confirm the death sentence for 21 prisoners.
On Thursday the clashes prevented some of the staff of a Suez
Canal container company from going to work.
Underlining the overwhelming task facing authorities trying
to restore order, police strikes spread across Egypt, with
officers demanding better protection.
Hundreds of police went on strike for a second day at a base
outside Ismailia, about 70km (45 miles) south of Port Said,
demanding more arms after several of their colleagues were
killed in recent clashes.
Police also went on strike in Tanta, north of Cairo, while
security forces charged with guarding one of President
Mohamed Mursi's residences in the Nile Delta started a sit-in
at a sports stadium to demand legal protection from
prosecution over their actions to control civil unrest.
They said they did not want to get mixed up in the country's
political crisis, state news agency MENA reported.
Dozens of police protested peacefully in Egypt's second city
of Alexandria, saying that they did not want their work to
become politicized and chanting "the police are not against
the people", MENA said.
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