Translated material
Cairo exploded
The New Times correspondents Ilya Barabanov and Yegor Mostovikhov are transferred from Tahrir Square
Cairo 21: 15*. *Cairo time - *approx. aut.
At the intersection of Shampilion Street and Mahmud Basioni Street, which adjoin the northwestern part of Tahrir Square, there is a fierce battle for control over this small space. Fighters, most of whom are young people aged 17-28, scream slogans, throw stones at each other, Molotov cocktails and everything that comes by hand, break the lanterns so that the opponents are more difficult to rush in them. A couple of minutes ago, they set fire to a police booth pumped up in the middle of the roadway and launched it into the crowd.
Screams, hooting, OR and encouraging shouts are heard. And so - throughout the center of the Cairo, which was held an hour ago - more precisely, they moved by quick dashes - The New Times correspondents. All the streets, lanes and intersections adjacent to the square of Tahrir turned into barricades from fences, fences, garbage tanks, shopping carts, stones, torn from the ground with meat of road signs, cars and telephone boots. Inside these barricades, there is a scattering of dissipated bridges and sidewalks: people knocked out stones from them and now throw them into each other.
Photo: Ilya Barabanov, Yegor Mostovshchikov*
According to official figures that the Ministry of Health of Egypt recently released, one person was killed and more than 400 was injured. On unofficial, three killed. All shops, hotels and offices in the district closed at the very beginning of the riots. The world channels have already circled personnel, as on horses, camels and in carts, Mubarak supporters burst into the square. The opposition claims that people were specially brought here from the province. The military does not interfere. True, in the afternoon, when the two crowds clashed, they began to beat the brandspytes - people literally poured water with water.
For a long time, the commandant hour, in Cairo, is already the darkness, but the opponents and supporters of Mubarak are not going to disperse. Madness is happening on the street, in which nothing can be made out. Not a single car is going to this part of the city. It is not clear how long the Cairo Airport will work: while we transfer this report, the Utair’s charter flight is being prepared (the aircraft was booked by the Bashkiria government, which takes out its students from here). Whether flights will be tomorrow - only one thing is responding to this airline operators: call in the morning. At the moment, a cordon has been created on the Tahrir Square, inside of which demonstrators hold the siege, which, as in the last 8 days of protests, are not going to leave it anywhere.
Arabian coup: all materials about the development of events in Egypt
Muslim Revolution: All Inclusive. The topic of the number (Issue No. 3 dated January 31, 2011)