Three dead as riots take hold of Egypt

POLICE in Cairo have fired tear gas and live rounds at protesters rioting and throwing rocks in anger over the deaths of 74 people at a football match on Wednesday, resulting in three casualties.

A man died just feet away from the Interior Ministry which has become a target for demonstrators furious that police failed to prevent the riot at a football staduim in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, the worst football-related violence Egyptian history.

Protesters have turned rallies in Cairo and Suez into a call for Egypt’s ruling military council, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, to surrender power because of what they say is the military’s mismanagement of the country’s transition to democracy.

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A volunteer doctor said the man in Cairo died of wounds from a shot fired at close range during clashes at dawn this morning. The doctor, who spoke anonymously, said his field hospital close to Cairo’s Tahrir Square had been overwhelmed with injuries overnight.

Earlier today two protesters died from police gunfire after clashes with security forces in Suez left another man in a critical condition with a neck wound. Around 3,000 people had been demonstrating in front of the city’s police headquarters as police fired tear gas and live ammunition witnesses have said. The city’s security chief, however, has denied the deaths were the result of police gunfire.

The clashes intensified overnight in Cairo with protesters pushing through the barricades erected around the Interior Ministry building.

The Ministry has urged the protesters in a statement “to listen to the sound of wisdom ... at these critical moments” and prevent the spread of chaos.

Wednesday’s deaths of 74 people in a post-match stadium riot in Port Said fueled anger towards Egypt’s ruling military generals and the already widely distrusted police force. The police had become notorious as the key tool of the oppressive regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in Egypt’s popular uprising last February.

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