CAIRO: Egypt's Ministry of Health said the official number of people dead in the Abbassiya violence has risen to 7, with 93 injured. However, activists say the real number is at least 17 dead and 200 injured. Khaled al-Khatib, chief of urgent care at the ministry, said only five cases remain in the hospital and are receiving treatment. A doctor at Qasr al-Aini hospital told news website al-Badeel that the hospital received 30 people with gunshot wounds to the eye, on Wednesday. He said that 10 cases were transferred to a private hospital for treatment and added that the chance of them regaining full sight in the injured eye is only 10 percent. Protesters were violently attacked early Wednesday when a group of militant assailants used live ammunition to disperse a sit-in close to the Ministry of Defense in the Abbassiya neighborhood of Cairo. Security officials said the clashes broke out when the plain-clothed assailants attacked hundreds of protesters whom had been camping out since Saturday, in a call for the amendment of the presidential elections laws and demanding the military leave power. Online activists shared videos showing a mob of men throwing balls of fire, from on top of a bridge, and hurling rocks and empty glass bottles. Doctors have confirmed two people were shot in the head and a third in the chest, while another says a man was “slain” inside an ambulance. One makeshift hospital volunteer doctor told local press that “thugs” were attacking ambulances and had killed an injured man inside one. They have also reported that the Dar al-Shefaa hospital, which was for over 6 hours the only hospital receiving the injured, was taken over by a group of thugs.
