Egypt security forces on Wednesday stormed two huge Cairo protests by supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohammad Mursi, prompting the resignation of interim vice president Mohammad Al Baradei and sparking nationwide violence, which left at least 149 people dead.
Updates:
US strongly condemns violence
US Secretary of State Kerry says US strongly condemns violence, bloodshed in Egypt, says it dealt serious blow to reconciliation.
- Widespread condemnation
Egypt's crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mursi triggered widespread condemnation on Wednesday as the international community reacted with alarm to what some termed a "massacre".
The United Nations, the United States, Britain, France, Iran, Qatar and Turkey strongly denounced the use of force by the military-backed interim government to clear two protest camps in Cairo.
The action, which was followed by the declaration of a month-long state of emergency, has resulted in at least 149 deaths, according to the health ministry, while the UN said the death toll could run into the hundreds.
- Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrested
Egyptian officials say Muslim Brotherhood leaders arrested at pro-Mursi protest camp
- Safe passage
Mursi supporters given safe passage out of protest camp in Cairo: TV
- Death toll rises
Egypt health ministry says death toll from Cairo protest camp raid and nationwide clashes rises to 149.
- Al Baradei resigns
Egypt interim vice president and Nobel laureate Mohammad Al Baradei resigns from his post following Egypt clashes.
- Curfew imposed
Egypt imposes curfew in Cairo, Alexandria and several other provinces from 7pm to 6am – state TV.
- 95 killed and nearly 500 injured
At least 95 killed and nearly 500 injured in raids and clashes across Egypt, says health ministry.
- State of emergency
Egypt declared a month-long state of emergency on Wednesday as violence raged across the country following a crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohammad Mursi.
The nationwide state of emergency will begin at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT), the presidency said in a statement read out on state television.
- Brotherhood says leader's daughter killed
Brotherhood says leader's daughter killed in Cairo clashes
- Sky News cameraman killed in Egypt clashes
A TV cameraman for Britain's Sky News was shot and killed while covering the deadly violence in Cairo on Wednesday, the channel said.
Mick Deane, a 61-year-old father of two children, had worked for Sky for 15 years and was a veteran cameraman who had been based in Washington DC and Jerusalem.
He was part of a Sky News team reporting on the crisis in Cairo with the channel's Middle East correspondent Sam Kiley when he was shot and wounded.
Deane received medical treatment for his injuries, but died shortly afterwards.
None of the other members of the team were injured, Sky said.
The channel's foreign editor Tim Marshall said: "He was a friend. Our hearts go out to his family.
"He died doing what he'd been doing so brilliantly for decades."
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "saddened" by the news.
John Ryley, head of Sky News, said: "Everyone at Sky News is shocked and saddened by Mick's death.
"He was a talented and experienced journalist who had worked with Sky News for many years.
Security forces stormed two huge Cairo protest camps occupied for weeks by supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi, leaving at least 124 people dead in a crackdown that turned into a bloodbath.
- Nine dead in province of Fayoum
At least nine people were killed on Wednesday in the Egyptian province of Fayoum, south of Cairo, a hospital official said, following fighting at police stations between supporters of deposed President Mohammad Mursi and the security forces.
Saad Kamel, head of the morgue at Fayoum general hospital, said the death toll had risen from seven earlier.
Mursi supporters attacked at least two police stations in Fayoum, setting fire to police vehicles outside one, witnesses said. There were also clashes outside the provincial governor's offices.
- Turkey says crackdown 'unacceptable'
Turkey's President Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday an armed intervention by Egyptian security forces against protesters in Cairo supporting ousted president Mohammad Mursi was "completely unacceptable".
"Armed intervention on civilians, on people demonstrating ... This is completely unacceptable," Gul told reporters in the capital Ankara.
Turkey has emerged as one of the fiercest international critics of what it has called an "unacceptable coup" after Egypt's military ousted the elected Mursi.
- EU reacts to crackdown
The European Union said on Wednesday that reports that protesters had been killed in a security force crackdown were "extremely worrying" and called for restraint from Egyptian authorities.
Egyptian security forces killed at least 30 people on Wednesday when they cleared a camp of Cairo protesters who were demanding the reinstatement of deposed President Mohamed Mursi, his Muslim Brotherhood movement said. Two members of the Egyptian security forces were shot dead, the state news agency reported.
"The reports of deaths and injuries are extremely worrying," Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said. "We reiterate that violence won't lead to any solution and we urge the Egyptian authorities to proceed with utmost restraint."
- Egyptian shares slump
Egyptian shares slumped the most in more than two weeks after police moved to disperse two anti-government sit-ins in Cairo.
The benchmark EGX 30 Index retreated 1.1 percent, the most since July 29, to 5,585.12 at 11:11 a.m. in Cairo. About 81 million Egyptian pounds ($12 million) of shares traded, compared with a one-year daily average of 391 million pounds. Ezz Steel, the country's largest publicly traded manufacturer of the metal, headed for the biggest decline in three weeks.
All but three stocks on the index fell as police moved into the camps at Al Rabaa and Al Nahda in the capital.
The stock market move "is very much linked to the political scene, which everyone is watching closely now," said Walid Mourad, Dubai-based fund manager at ING Investment Management Middle East Ltd. "It's very hard to predict what's going to happen."
- Army opens fire on Mursi supporters
The Egyptian army opened fire on Wednesday on supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohammad Mursi, who were trying to join a protest camp in Cairo which was attacked by security forces, a Reuters witness said.
The Reuters reporter said he saw about 20 people who had been shot in the legs by soldiers. Mursi's supporters had been throwing stones and petrol bombs at Egyptian troops.
- Mursi supporters torch church in central Egypt
Supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi torched a church in central Egypt on Wednesday in a reprisal attack as police dispersed demonstrations in Cairo, MENA state news agency said.
The assailants threw firebombs at Mar Gergiss church in Sohag, a city with a large community of Coptic Christians who comprise up to 10 percent of Egypt's 84 million people, causing it to burn down, the agency said.
- Death toll rises to 43
Security forces backed by bulldozers moved on two huge protest camps set up in Cairo by supporters of Egypt’s ousted president Mohammad Mursi, launching a long-threatened crackdown that left dozens dead.
The operation began shortly after dawn when security forces surrounded the sprawling Rabaa Al Adawiya camp in east Cairo and a similar one at Al Nahda square, in the centre of the capital.
Witnesses and an AFP correspondent said police rained canisters of tear gas down onto tents before entering Rabaa Al Adawiya, sparking pandemonium among the thousands of protesters who set up the camp soon after Mursi was ousted by the army on July 3.
Men in gas masks rushed to grab each canister and dunk them in containers of water. Clashes quickly erupted between protesters and security forces on one side of the camp, as automatic fire could be heard. It was not immediately clear who was doing the shooting.
Television footage showed injured people being carried to a makeshift medical centre as well as police dragging away protesters, who have defied numerous ultimatums to end their demonstrations. Protest leaders wearing gas masks stood defiantly on a stage while crowds of people wearing face masks stood amid the swirling tear gas as bulldozers began dismantling the camp.
Egypt’s interior ministry mid-morning said security forces have “total control” over Al Nahda Square, the smaller of the two camps.
“Police forces have managed to remove most of the tents in the square," the ministry said.
A security official told AFP that dozens of Mursi supporters had been arrested with the help of residents of the area.
Television footage showed protesters who had been rounded up sitting in the ground handcuffed and surrounded by security forces. Families, with their children, carrying plastic bags were seen being escorted out of the square by police.
- Police storm bigger of two protests camps
Egyptian state television is showing footage of security forces deep inside the larger sit-in camp of supporters of Mursi.
The footage indicates the forces have stormed the encampment in the eastern Nasr City district in Cairo, after clearing out earlier on Wednesday the smaller sit-in, outside the main Cairo University campus on the other side of the Egyptian capital.
Security officials say troops were closing in on a mosque that has served as the epicenter of the Nasr City camp for over a month. Several leaders of Mursi‘s Muslim Brotherhood are thought to have been staying inside the mosque.
- Death toll rises to 30
Egyptian security forces killed at least 30 people clearing a camp of Cairo protesters demanding the reinstatement of Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood said.
There was no immediate official confirmation of the deaths at Raba’a Al Adawiya.
One witness said he saw 15 bodies at a field hospital beside the camp where bulldozers cleared the protesters' tents. "It is nasty inside, they are destroying our tents. We can't breath inside and many people are in hospital," Murad Ahmad told a Reuters correspondent on the edge of the sprawling camp.
The state news agency said security forces had started implementing a phased plan to disperse the protesters, which is almost certain to deepen political turmoil in Egypt.
On the other side of Cairo, smoke could be seen rising above the Nahda protest camp after security forces moved in to disperse protesters.
More than 300 people have already died in political violence since the army overthrew Mursi on July 3, including dozens of his supporters killed by security forces in two separate earlier incidents.
- Brotherhood leaders arrested
The Interior Ministry says a number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been arrested, but it was too early to give names.
Many of the group’s leaders have already been arrested or are wanted and their assets frozen in one of the toughest crackdowns it has ever faced. The break up of the camps would strip the Brotherhood of its main leverage against the government.
Television pictures showed security forces shooting from the roofs and protesters reported clouds of tear gas.
- Trains across Egypt halted
Egypt on Wednesday stopped all train services in and out of Cairo to prevent supporters of Mohammad Mursi from reassembling after being dispersed from protest camps in the capital. “Train services in and out of Cairo in all directions have been stopped until further notice... for security reasons and to prevent people from mobilising,” the railway authority said.
- Security forces control one protest camp
The interior ministry says security forces have “total control” over the smaller of two protest camps in the operation to clear away supporters of Mursi.
Al Nahda Square was “totally under control” and “police forces have managed to remove most of the tents in the square,” the ministry said.
A security official told AFP that dozens of Mursi supporters had been arrested with the help of residents from the area.
Television footage showed protesters who had been rounded up sitting in the ground handcuffed and surrounded by security forces. Families, who included children, were seen being escorted out of the square by police.
- Makeshift morgue
At least 15 people were killed on Wednesday as police moved in to disperse two huge protest camps set up in Cairo by supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohammad Mursi.
An AFP correspondent who counted the bodies at a makeshift morgue at the Raaa Al Adawiya camp said many appeared to have died from gunshot wounds.
The Muslim Brotherhood says more than 100 have been killed in the crackdown.
Forces, backed by armoured cars and bulldozers, showered protesters with tear gas as the sound of gunfire rang out at both sites, state television and security officials said.
The Anti-Coup Alliance, an umbrella of pro-Mursi supporters, said in a statement that 25 were killed and dozens injured in the attack on the larger of the two protest camps in the eastern district of Nasr City.
There was no official word on casualties among the protesters in either camp, but state television said one policeman was killed. The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, warned in a statement that the forces would deal firmly with protesters acting "irresponsibly" and said it would guarantee safe passage to those who want to leave the sites.
An Associated Press television video journalist at the scene of the larger of the two camps said he could hear the screams of women as a cloud of white smoke hung over the site in the eastern Cairo suburb of Nasr City. He said a bulldozer was removing mounds of sand bags and brick walls built by the protesters as a defence line in their camp. Army troops, however, were not taking part in the operation.
The simultaneous actions by the Egyptian forces - at the pro-Morsi encampment in Nasr City and at the site outside the main campus of Cairo University on the other side of the city - began around 7am (9am UAE). Helicopters hovered over the two sites.
Regional television networks are showing images of collapsed tents and burning tires at both sites, with ambulances on standby at the scene. They were also showing protesters being arrested and led away by the troops.
At least 250 people have died in clashes in Egypt following Mursi being ousted in a military coup that followed days of mass protests by millions of Egyptians calling for his removal.
Supporters of the Islamist president want him reinstated.
