Clashes between protesters and police in downtown Cairo have continued for five days.
Clashes between protesters and police in downtown Cairo have continued for five days.
On Tuesday, thousands of protesters refused to leave the downtown Tahrir Square even at night.
Protesters pelted the police with stones. The police fired tear gas.
People are demanding that the military return to their barracks. Another demand is that a presidential council should assume power in the country.
A field hospital for victims during the clashes was moved to the middle of Tahrir Square on Tuesday. White hospital tents have been installed in the “security island,” where doctors are keeping a 24-hour watch.
According to an Egyptian Health Ministry report that was released on Wednesday, 31 people had died during the Tahrir Square clashes, with two protesters dying on Tuesday evening. Seven hundred protesters were wounded in the course of one day alone. Photo: Participants in mass rioting giving first aid to gas-poisoned compatriots.
But protesters themselves and doctors say there are many more casualties. Photo: A biker evacuating injured protesters.
Those who came to Tahrir Square the day before thanked the ambulance crews by giving them a truckload of white roses.
In a bid to deal with yet another surge of violence, the military authorities met a number of popular demands, accepting the resignation of Isam Sharaf’s government and coming up with an approximate date for the next presidential elections that are due to be held before the end of June 2012.
But even Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of Egypt Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who read an address to the nation on the evening of November 22, was unable to calm the protesters. Clashes continued. Photo: Protesters and police clashing near Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
