Police fire tear gas at outraged Cairo protesters (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

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Published: 02 February, 2012, 23:25
Edited: 03 February, 2012, 06:57

Cairo : Egyptian protesters flash victory signs during clashes near the interior ministry in downtown Cairo on February 2, 2012. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Hams)

TAGS: Conflict, Africa, Accident, Football

New clashes broke out in Cairo over a row that killed dozens following a football match this week. Security forces responded with tear gas to protesters, who blame the country's police and military leadership for not preventing the violence.
Reports from the country's Health Ministry say over 400 people have been injured already in the clashes outside Cairo's Interior Ministry headquarters, with witnesses reporting unconscious people being removed the scene and ambulances rushing to the area.
Nearly 10,000 angry protesters pushed their way through barbed wire barriers to the building, near Tahrir Square.
Meanwhile, two protesters have reportedly been killed by police fire in the Egyptian city of Suez. The police have used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the crowd of around 3,000 people who demonstrated in front of police headquarters, the Associated Press reported.
­Protesters blame the country's security forces for failing to prevent a series of brawls that killed dozens and left hundreds more injured after a football match on Wednesday.

AFP Photo/STR

A riot in the Egyptian city of Port Said has left 79 dead and hundreds wounded after football fans stormed the pitch before engaging in running battles inside the stadium. The government has announced three days of mourning in the country.

AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams

­Oxford University history lecturer Mark Almond told RT that some want to use the chaos in Egypt for their own benefit, and that there are two plausible “conspiracy versions” of what is really happening there.
“One is that the government of Marshal Tantawi wants chaos in order to say, ‘Only the army can save Egypt,’” Almond explained. “The other is that there are people who want to say: ‘Look, we – the people who’ve been running Egypt for the last year, since Mubarak fell – need a complete change, we need to get rid of the military.’ Both of these have some plausibility, but no concrete evidence for them as yet.”
Almond added that the most tragic part of the situation is that Egyptian police incompetency alone has led to a huge number of deaths.
“Their incompetent behavior … set fire to the imaginations of people who want to believe such a tragedy must have a deeper reason,” he said.