LIVE REPORT by Press Photographer
I am a press photographer. At exactly 1.30 yesterday afternoon, I arrived outside the Republican Palace in Cairo. It was protected by Republican Guards and intelligence service officers. They were equipped with light automatic machine-guns and tear gas canisters; support was provided by armoured vehicles with heavy machine-guns on the top.
One of the anti-coup protesters approached the barbed wire to hang a picture of the deposed president on it. The officer in charge of the guards told us cameramen to leave the area as he “could not guarantee our safety”.
The officers tore Morsi’s picture from the barbed wire. As the protesters approached the middle of the road they were chanting. The senior officer opened fire at them.
One of the protesters was holding a picture of Morsi and an officer from the intelligence service shot him in the head from a range of about 5 metres; he died on the spot.
Chaos erupted and the Republican Guards opened fire at the peaceful protesters who were not, I swear, carrying as much as a stone. Many were killed and wounded.
Two of the protesters tried to retrieve the corpses of the dead. The army shot at them too. I have the photographs to prove it.