Clashes leave 51 Egyptians dead and more than 250 injured

PHOTOS

The death toll from clashes between security forces and pro-Morsi supporters has risen to 51 killed and 268 wounded, Egypt’s MENA state news agency has said, quoting figures from the Ministry of Health.

Reuters said that Ibn Sina Hospital in Cairo had at least 8 bodies in the mortuary. It quoted one medic who said that he saw soldiers and police shooting “Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators” from a bridge.

An Interior Ministry statement claimed that the clashes were an attempt by the Brotherhood “to sabotage the 1973 October War commemorations and to clash with the masses who participated in them”; the ministry accused the movement’s members of rioting and attacking public property on Sunday. It said that 33 people were killed, mostly in Cairo and Giza, and that the police had arrested 423 demonstrators. Security sources said that the participants in the pro-Morsi rallies in Cairo and Giza were marching to Tahrir Square where thousands had gathered to remember the October War on its 40th anniversary.

Similar clashes were reported in Alexandria, Suez and Aswan where Morsi supporters declared the coup to be “terrorism” and accused General Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi of being a “murderer”.

State television focused on the war commemoration ceremony attended by Al-Sisi and former head of the armed forces Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawi.

First published on arabs48 and elshaab.  

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