Thousands of protesters remained in Cairo’s Tahrir Square late Friday despite thick clouds of tear gas, after a day of nationwide demonstrations on the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
BBC anchor says journo in Tahrir couldnt go on tv cos of tear gas. Switch to Nile TV, and their journalist freaking out over tear gas
Late Friday, Bel Trew, a correspondent for the English-language news site Ahram Online, reported on Twitter that the police fired yet another volley of tear gas at the protesters in Tahrir Square.
More tear gas from Sheikh Rihan, literally thick& fast.V. large bang-could be birdshot,can’t confirm.It’s dark filled with smoke #tahrir
3\4 of #tahrir now cleared as tear gas is unbearable. More loud bangs. Protesters cheer. #Egypt #jan25
Fi! res lit around #tahrir to counter stinging choking gas. People edge forward back to central roundabout of #tahrir chanting furiously.
In one voice, people tentatively edge back to #tahrir after huge gas attack: ‘The people demand the end of the regime’. #Egypt
Gas was also fired at demonstrators near the presidential palace after dark, according to a video report from El Watan, an Egyptian news site.
Earlier in the day, as marches from around the city converged on Tahrir Square, activists, bloggers and journalists shared street-level views of the protests as they unfolded, posting text updates, photographs and video on social networks.
#ثورة http://t.co/N1gaULZ2
As one march made its way to Tahrir, a skirmish broke out after some members of the crowd reportedly attacked the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Web site, Ikhwan Online, and then tried to block firefighters from coming to extinguish a blaze.
Violent protestors attack Ikhwanonline office for third time, computers and other equipments destroyed, thrown off windows
Rock throwing at ikhwan online building, guy on roof throwing rocks at protesters below
People attacking ikhwan online office http://t.co/V5sSkVjS
ppl attacking fire brigade try to pass through , pushes them back, they don’t want them to put out fire for ikhwan http://t.co/gKkm42vA
According to the journalist and blogger Sarah El Sirgany, witnesses said that masked anarchists, calling themselves the Black Block, initiated the fighting with an attack on the Islamist Web site’s office. During the attack, a vendor’s stand was set on fire, which led to a confused round of fighting between a group of vendors and some protesters, who were under the mistaken impression that they were battling members of the Brotherhood.
Ve! ndors tell me it was the Black Block group that attempted to storm the Ikhwan Online building sparking the fight.
Now I saw at least 2 at the balcony of said office, look like they broke into it and throwing its furniture on the fruit stands beneath.
Now it’s full on fight with the vendors with rocks. Judging by protesters chants they think they r fighting muslim brotherhood.
I keep hearing the firing, probably metal pellets from the sound of it and the gun I saw, from the vendors side. Now Molotov by protesters.
Now people on both sides r trying to stop the rock throwing.
Truce. People clap. Some hug each other. Surreal.
Over an hour later, arguments at the frontline. It seems people are realizing who they’ve been fighting and what happened.
When activists from that march finally reached Tahrir, they came across a running street battle between protesters and the police across a concrete barrier blocking one entrance to the square.
Rock throwing , police responding with tear gas . #Mubarak & #morsi must be biggest buyers of tear gas globally #egypt http://t.co/00yiKxbH
That battle, on Qasr al-Aini Street, had begun Thursday evening, when protesters pulled down the barrier, only to see it rebuilt by soldiers. Some of Friday’s fighting was caught on video by Simon Hanna for Ahram Online. Mr. Hanna’s report features a remarkable interview with one of the protesters, a young man who held an empty tear-gas canister in his hand as he explained that his family intended to stay in Tahrir Square until they get justice for his brother, who was killed there while demonstrating on Jan. 25, 2011.
VIDEO: tear gas and rocks flying on Qasr el Ainy, on the outskirts of #Tahrir. #Egypt #Jan25 http://t.co/5hMK46l8
As Priyanka Motaparthy, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, pointed out, an edit of video shot from the other side of the barrier uploaded to the interior ministry’s own YouTube channel portrayed the clash in a very different way, suggesting that the police officers there were victims of aggression from thuggish young men.
So @moiegy got a YouTube channel. Vid shows mostly kids montaged in w bunch of injured CSF http://t.co/DOHJN1hl #Jan25 #Tahrir