Cairo: A fire gutted the downtown Cairo offices of jailed Egyptian opposition politician Ayman Nour on Thursday after a pro-government splinter group of his liberal Ghad party tried to seize control of the office.
Black smoke billowed from the windows of the Ghad office next to a portrait of Nour, jailed on fraud charges after he challenged President Hosni Mubarak in a 2005 presidential election. An orange Ghad party flag fluttered in the breeze.
Security sources said the fire broke out after confrontations between Ghad party members loyal to Nour and rivals whom he has long said are linked to Egypt's ruling party.
Both sides traded blame about who started the fire. Seven people were lightly hurt by bricks and smoke inhalation.
"We are under attack. They are burning the office... People are suffocating," Wael Nawara, a Ghad party official loyal to Nour, said in a text message sent to a Reuters journalist.
Later, he said that party members from Nour's Ghad had closed the door to the building to prevent the rival faction from entering and that the rivals had set the door on fire "trying to smoke us out".
Anticipated
He said Nour's Ghad party had anticipated the rivals would try to take over the office, and had made numerous police complaints asking for protection, but that police normally present in the neighbourhood were absent before the fire.
Officials from the Ghad faction that split from Nour said they had come to hold an annual meeting but that the loyalists had blocked their entry and threw fire bombs at them.
"They fired Molotovs, and I saw that one of those up there dropped a Molotov on the balcony," said Ragab Hamida, an official from the splinter faction. He said the fire bomb had been aimed at crowds below, but ignited the Ghad office instead.
Several hurt
Outside the burned offices, plainclothes security men blocked the entry to the office while uniformed police held crowds at bay. Car windows beneath the offices were smashed.
Nour's Ghad party said up to 150 people had been inside to hold their annual meeting when the confrontation and fire broke out, and they had no plans to cede control of the office.
"We cannot really give in to these threats," Nawara said. He denied that members of Nour's Ghad had thrown fire bombs at the rivals, although he said some had thrown soda bottles during the melee.
Ayman Nour is currently serving a five-year jail sentence for forging documents, charges he says were fabricated to block him from politics.
Analysts say the government has wanted Nour out of politics to pave the way for Mubarak's son to succeed.
They fired Molotovs, and I saw that one of those up there
