The Mediterranean city is not standing still, reports Ameera Fouad Like other Egyptian cities, Alexandria had its share of major outbreaks and outpouring of endless demonstrations stretching from its farthest west Abu Qir to its farthest east Ras Al-Tine. Angry protesters and hundreds of supporters and fans of the football team Al-Ahli, waving Al-Ahli flags and wearing black, marched vigorously down streets from every neighbourhood to denounce the killings and to mourn the deaths of 74 people in Port Said stadium last week. Last Thursday, a day after the massacre, thousands of fuming protesters rushed onto streets to mourn one of the leaders of the Al-Ahli Ultras here in Alexandria, Mahmoud Abdel-Rehim Ghandour. The protesters rallied outside Kom Al-Dekka morgue and went down in a grand funeral to bury Ghandour and to bemoan all those who were killed in Port Said during the clashes with supporters of their bitter rivals, Al-Masri. Along with Al-Ahli Ultras were the fans of the Alexandria Ittihad club, Zamalek Ultras, the Masri's Green Magic and the members of 6 April youth movement and Kifaya -- political groups that played a key role in mobilising protesters against the Mubarak regime. They all took the Corniche Street from Qaed Ibrahim Mosque and marched by the hundreds heading towards the North Military District in Sidi Gaber chanting and shouting "There is no God but God and the martyr is God's beloved" and "Either we get their rights or die like them". There is a widespread belief in Alexandria that the violence was planned. Especially after some Al-Ahli Ultras, who escaped certain death in Port Said, marched into streets last Friday morning along with scores of angry protesters. Ahmed, as he wanted to give his name, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "swords and knives were smuggled into the stadium. Exit gates were locked on only our part. The stadium was a hell on fire and there were many laws broken like the flooding of Al-Masri fans on the football ground, the launching of fireworks all the time on our own part of the stadium... the match was supposed to be stopped at many times but the referee, I don't know why he didn't stop it. It is a conspiracy played out by either the police or thugs paid by the former National Democratic Party, I think. I saw my friends being thrown from the stands and people stomping on one another. I saw thugs carrying knives, swords and other weapons trapping my friends and killing them in cold blood and the police stood there, doing absolutely nothing but watching them being killed. Moreover, the stadium's floodlights had been switched off. It was an ambush set for Al-Ahli fans and that's absolutely an incontrovertible crime. No words could be said," Ahmed added as tears came running down as he was trying to let us see the photos of the martyrs on his cell phone. For four successive days since the Port Said ambush, as Ahmed called it, protests in Alex were as large as last year's which led to Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Protesters wailed over the death of young fans whose only wrong was "going to a football match" and then getting killed by thugs who usually get paid for their killings. The idea of being killed or ambushed by the police is clearly in Alexandrians' minds, reminiscent of the death of Khaled Said, the young man whose death by police officers helped spark the 25 January Revolution. And that's why protests never seem to stop in boiling Alexandria. Though the route the protesters took each time was almost the same -- starting in Qaed Ibrahim Square marching through the Corniche and then standing still in front of the North Military District in Mustafa Kamel -- their cries, too were virtually the same, focussing on one single chant of defiance, "Down, down with military rule", denouncing the massacre in Port Said and demanding the immediate handover of power by the ruling military, tension seemed never to part Alexandria's streets. Such peaceful demonstrations did not help in diverting some protesters from heading towards the Alexandria Police Security building in Semouha, an act which led to mild confrontations between the security officers and some protesters. Salama Abdel-Moneim, a spokesman of Alexandria's Ministry of Health, said around 14 people were treated for injuries in the past 72 hours. Most appeared to have suffered from tear gas inhalation while others from bruises and others fractures. "Nonetheless, the situation has been calmer," says General Khaled Ghoraba, head of the Alexandria security police in Alexandria, while talking over one of the national TV channels, "since families and human shields gathered themselves to protect the building and to safeguard public property". Asked whether he used tear gas since the confrontations began, Ghoraba said, "I didn't use tear gas until some young men started pelting rocks and throwing Molotov cocktails. That's when I allowed the police officers to use it. That's the only time. But since human shields were made, nothing has been used since then." If the turmoil in Alexandria rested solely in the clashes between security officers and protesters or on large demonstrations that may block main streets, it would be definitely like the rest of Egypt. However, streets in Alexandria witnessed all kinds of hooligans and thugs during the week. In what has become a talking point, Cinema Lagetee Street, in Ibrahimiya, one of the foremost shopping districts, witnessed scores of thugs rushing into the streets on Wednesday smashing cars vandalising shops, all the while brandishing knives and swords. More than 10 shops were broken into and more than five cars were destroyed. Mohamed El-Sayed, a shop owner in the vicinity said, "It was like a war zone here in Ibrahimiya. More than 50 thugs and street gangsters attacked our shops and terrified us. They came late at night. Thank God that no one got hurt, but the loss was immense. We asked for police. No one arrived. A few days later, the police came to investigate what had happened. No comment was what we said." At the same time as Alexandrians poured out in protests, were attacked by unleashed thugs in streets and are filling in as human shields to defend their public and private property, they also called for a stop to wildcat building and chaotic flouting of regulations of many buildings in the city. A 14-floor building in Ibrahim Haridi Street in Montazah, which was built in less than three months, collapsed into ruins Monday morning. A 29-year-old, Haitham Ahmed Ramadan, was reported to be under the rubble. More than five families were reported injured.
