Protestors turn on riot police

Protestors turn on riot police

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In Egypt two people have been killed and hundreds injured in countrywide protests ignited by a decree issued by President Mohamed Mursi giving himself sweeping new powers.

With demonstrations against the president flaring around Tahrir Square - that icon of the 2011 revolution - a group of protestors caught some riot policemen and beat them with anything to hand.

. CAIRO, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Reuters photographer Amr Abdallah Dalsh saw as protestors caught two riot officers, who had become isolated from their colleagues.

. CAIRO, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Protestors surrounded them and started beating them. The police were among a group who seemed to want to hit back at demonstrators who had been attacking them with stones.

. CAIRO, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

The protesters caught hold of one of the policeman in front of the U.S. embassy, near Tahrir Square.

. CAIRO, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

They were beaten by protestors with anything available: stones, glass, wood. A few demonstrators also tried to protect the police officers, Dalsh said.

. CAIRO, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

The attacking protestors started stripping the officers of their clothes: their vests and shields, helmets and shoes. Demonstrators were shouting “beat him, beat him.”

. CAIRO, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

One riot policeman fled after the beating, running without shoes over the debris on the street.

"The protesters were throwing everything they could at them: stones, glasses, logs."
Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Reuters Photographer

I reached the scene of clashes near Tahrir Square, which have witnessed a lot of violence over the last few days. I saw members of the riot police getting close to the protesters; the two groups normally engage in cat-and-mouse struggles. I could hear the siren of a police vehicle coming. Usually protesters run away quickly.

It was obvious that there were about five to six riot policemen to the left of the vehicle and that they wanted to hit back at the protesters with the same stones the protesters were using to attack them. Those few riot officers started going inside a building nearby.

Then the police vehicle started to pull out, I guess without noticing that they had left some of their guys behind. The protesters, realising that those few riot police were separated from their group, started to beat them very hard.

I heard the protesters saying that they had caught three of them, but I only saw two. The demonstrators were throwing everything they could at them: stones, glasses, logs. They were also slapping their faces and I could see blood coming from the policemen's heads. The protesters started stripping them of their clothes: their vests and shields, helmets and shoes.

Some few protesters tried to defend the policemen and told the others that they should leave them alone. But the rest of the demonstrators were still beating them. Let's take our rights, they said.

In the middle of this beating, the other policemen who had left heard the protesters saying "'beat him, beat him!" and they realised that one or more of their comrades were in the hands of the crowd. They came with three vehicles and started to throw a lot of tear gas to disperse them.

The people who had defended the beaten police took one of them and handed him back to the other officers. The second policeman had fled the tear gas and had already gone away in another direction, without any shoes, running over glass in the road.

Afterwards, I saw the protesters proudly showing the police from a distance that they had taken some of their shields and vests.

They shouted very bad words and slogans against the Interior Minstery and President Mursi.