An armed gang has attacked storage spaces at the Giza plateau, stealing various artefacts, reports Nevine El-Aref During attacks on antiquities sites in the recent nationwide protests, an armed gang of around 60 thieves broke into two storage spaces on the ramp of the second pyramid of Khafre on the Giza plateau outside Cairo. The thieves tied up the site's six guards and a policeman, threatening to kill them. They then succeeded in entering the storage spaces, formed by a plain rock-hewn tomb located on the southern side of the ramp to the Khafre Pyramid. Several artefacts were stolen. According to Ali Al-Asfar, head of the Giza plateau area, the Ministry of State for Antiquities Affairs (MSAA) is waiting for prosecutors to inspect the scene and has yet to take an inventory of the items. Minister of state for antiquities affairs Zahi Hawass said that the army had withdrawn from archaeological sites when the police were re-deployed during the recent protests, having been withdrawn by the government on 28 January. This had made them vulnerable to robbery, he said. The ministry has set up a committee to determine which items have been stolen. Hawass said the thieves had broken into the store, but that they had probably been unable to remove larger items. Several other important antiquities sites were attacked during the nationwide disturbances. Following the drawing up of a preliminary inventory, Sabri Abdel-Aziz, director of the Ancient Egyptian Department at the MSAA, reported that the Old Kingdom tomb of Hetepka, part of the Saqqara necropolis, had been broken into and that a false door may have been stolen along with other objects. In order to compare the tomb's present state with earlier records, Hawass has asked a committee to inspect every inch of the structure. A similar attack also took place at Abu Sir, where a portion of a false door was stolen from the tomb of high priest Rahotep. Hawass said that forced entries had been confirmed at a number of storage places during recent disturbances, including one near the pyramid of the Sixth Dynasty king Teti and a storeroom belonging to Cairo University, both at Saqqara. "I have set up a committee to prepare reports to determine what, if anything, is missing from these stores," Hawass said. He added that the military authorities had caught thieves attempting to loot the site of Tel Al-Basta in the Nile Delta, as well as others trying to loot a tomb in Lisht.
