CAIRO: Less than 24 hours after almost one million Egyptians participated in the “Friday of One Demand,” security forces attacked those who had spent the night and tore down their tents, chasing them around the side streets of downtown Cairo around noon on Saturday. Eyewitnesses have said at least 18 people were injured and dozens more arrested after the military police, aided by riot police clashed with protesters to disperse their sit-in in Tahrir square. They added that the police broke into the nearby Omar Makram mosque looking for protesters and searched the metro for anyone who had attempted to run away. Heavy gunfire was heard in the square when the police fired warning shots. Eyewitnesses, and a Bikyamasr.com reporter on the ground, confirmed that the military police were seen beating protesters and dragging them from their clothes on the ground, including women and elderly citezines. Among those injured was a young man in his twentees from the “injured of the revolution,” who was again assaulted and beaten by security forces, while activists on the ground reported that ambulances were very late responding to calls, which endangered many people's lives. It was also reported that media workers were detained by the military, including a video journalist with ON TV and other print journalists are curently detained in the army's armored vehicles in Talaat Harb street, just off from Tahrir. Meanwhile, the remaining few protesters are continuing their attempt to continue their sit-in and were on a march in one of the small streets surrounding the square, chanting “we either die like them or bring them justice,” before the police chased after them again. A few hundred activists remain in the square, while not all the injured have been taken to hospital. Some injuries are reportedly serious. Dozens, including journalists, were detained and a number of them were released after spending over an hour in an ill-ventilated armored military car. BM
