City-wide protests erupt after Egypt football violence

The Egyptian Soccer Federation’s board has been dissolved by the

country’s Prime Minister following the violence after a match in Port

Said last night. Egypt’s newly elected parliament is currently discussing last night’s

clashes, which have been described as the worst football violence in Egypt’s

history. Today, Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri referred members of the

Federation’s board to prosecutors for questioning.

He announced the decision during Thursday’s emergency parliamentary

session, a day after a match between Al-Ahly and Al-Masry soccer teams. El-Ganzouri also says the governor of Port Said province and the area’s

police chief have resigned. Witnesses had said that riot police stood by as supporters of home team Al-Masry rushed the field after their 3-1 win over Al-Ahly. Scores of Egyptian soccer fans were crushed to death while others were fatally stabbed or suffocated after being trapped in a long narrow

corridor trying to flee rival fans armed with knives, clubs and

stones, witnesses and health officials said today. It is also the deadliest football violence worldwide since 1996. One player said it was “like a war.” Egyptian activists have accused the police and military of failing to

intervene to stop the mayhem. This morning, dozens of angry protesters sealed off Tahrir Square, the

epicentre of the uprising that toppled Mubarak, while others blocked the

street in front of the state TV building in downtown Cairo ahead of

planned marches later in the day to the Interior Ministry to denounce

the police force. The melee at the stadium in Port Said erupted when Al-Masry fans stormed

the field following a rare 3-1 win against Al-Ahly. Al-Masry supporters,

armed with knives, sticks and stones, chased players and fans from the

rival team, Al-Ahly, who ran toward the exits and up the stands to

escape, according to witnesses. Ahmed Ghaffar, one of the visiting Al Ahly fans at the stadium, said

“layers of people” were stuck, “suffocating inside a narrow corridor” as

they tried to get out of the stadium. “The people were stuck over each other because there was no other

exist,” Ghaffar tweeted on Thursday. “We were between two choices,

either death coming from behind us, or the closed doors.” Ghaffar said that seconds after the match ended, Al-Masry fans rushed onto the pitch from all sides while the police stood by motionless. A

power outage followed, he said, and “the soccer field fell into

darkness.”

“We were surprised the the police let them in that easy. The numbers

were huge,” he said. As many Al-Ahly fans crowded into the corridor leading out of the

stadium, they were trapped, with the doors at the other end locked.

Ghaffar said Al-Masry fans beat those Al-Ahly fans who fell on the floor

and also described several stampedes. Al-Masry fan, Mohammed Mosleh, posted his account on Facebook, saying he

saw “thugs with weapons” on his side in the stadium where police

presence was meagre. “This was unbelievable,” he said. “We were supposed to be celebrating,

not killing people. We defeated Al-Ahly, something I saw twice only in

my lifetime. All the people were happy. Nobody expected this.”

Health ministry official Hisham Sheha said deaths were caused by stabs

by sharp tools, brain hemorrhage and concussions. “All those carried to

hospitals were already dead bodies,” Sheha told state-TV.

One man told state TV he heard gunshots in the stadium, while a lawmaker

from Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood said the police didn’t prevent

fans carrying knives from entering the stadium.

TV footage showed Al-Ahly players rushing for their locker room as

fistfights broke out among the hundreds of fans swarming on to the

field. Some men had to rescue a manager from the losing team as he was

being beaten. Black-clothed police officers stood by, appearing

overwhelmed. The Interior Ministry said 74 people died, including one police officer,

and 248 were injured, 14 of them police. A local health official

initially said 1,000 people were injured and it was not clear how

severely. Security forces arrested 47 people for involvement in the

violence, the statement said.

State TV appealed to Egyptians to donate blood for the injured in Port

Said, and the military sent two aircraft to evacuate serious cases to

the capital, Cairo. A number of political parties called on the Egyptian parliament to pass

no-confidence vote against the government of Kamal el-Ganzouri, a

Mubarak-era politician appointed by the much-critised ruling military

council. El-Ganzouri himself held an emergency cabinet meeting early

Thursday. Essam el-Erian, a Brotherhood lawmaker, said the military and police

were complicit in the violence, accusing them of trying to show that

emergency regulations giving security forces wide-ranging powers must be

maintained. “This tragedy is a result of intentional reluctance by the military and

the police,” he said.

The trigger for the violence, however, remains a mystery since most of

the attackers were from the winning team. April 6 group, which was among youth groups that led the anti-Mubarak

uprising, accused the ruling military of collaboration in the violence.

“Is it logical that the force that managed to secure parliamentary

elections in nine provinces can’t secure a soccer match where skirmishes

among fans were expected,” the group said in a statement Thursday.

The organised soccer fans known as Ultras have playing an important role

in the anti-Mubarak uprising and rallies against the military rule.

Their anti-police songs, peppered with curses, have quickly become viral

and an expression of the hatred many Egyptians feel toward security

forces that were accused of much of the abuse that was widespread under

Mubarak’s regime. In the eyes of political activists, the long enmity between Ultras and

much-hated security forces under Mubarak and under the military rule

explains why the police stepped aside in the face of deadly brawl.

In a statement signed by Ultras of Al-Ahly, the group said Thursday that

the military council and former members of Mubarak’s regime were

retaliating for the Ultras role in the revolution.

“They want to punish us and execute us for our participation in the

revolution against suppression,” it said, and vowed a “new war in

defence of our revolution.”