Thirty five injured as football fans riot in Cairo (2nd Roundup)

Nov 20, 2009, 12:17 GMT

Cairo - Roughly a thousand people rioted in the streets around the Algerian Embassy in Cairo in the early hours of Friday to vent their anger at attacks against Egyptian fans in Sudan the previous night.

Angry crowds converged on the embassy, chanting anti-Algerian obscenities, beating drums and burning the Algerian flag, before riot police chased them away from the building with batons.

Young men threw stones and fireworks at the police, who threw the stones back. At one point, fans attacked a police truck, smashing its windows and attempting to turn it over and set it ablaze.

'Where are the newspapers? Where is the television?' they chanted.

In a statement posted to its website, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said 11 policemen and 24 citizens were injured in the melee, and that several cars, including police vehicles, were damaged.

Several main arteries of the exclusive island neighbourhood of Zamalek, where the embassy is located, were taken over by the crowds.

'This is bad. This is Egyptians beating Egyptians,' Hussein Abdel- Fatah, 23, told the German Press Agency dpa. 'Aren't the police Egyptians too?'

But in some cases, police could be seen walking alongside protesters, and late in the night officers could be seen talking with a group of youths, apparently trying to convince them to go home.

At other points, fans yelled at other fans for throwing rocks at the police, saying the police were also Egyptians.

'The Egyptian people are very angry at what the Algerians did,' one protester, who gave his name only as Ahmed, said.

'We stood by them in their war of independence,' he said. 'We stood by them through the days of terrorism. What other Arab country stood next to Algeria through all this?'

The crowds gathered after altercations in the previous weeks between Algerian and Egyptian fans over a World Cup qualifier and playoff, played in Egypt and Sudan on Saturday and Wednesday nights, respectively.

Much smaller crowds gathered near the Algerian Embassy after Egyptian media reported that Algerian fans attacked Egyptian fans in Sudan following Algeria's 1-0 victory Wednesday night to reach the World Cup next year in South Africa.

Many said they had come out because they had heard 'from everywhere,' including the websites Facebook and YouTube, that Egyptian fans had been killed in Sudan.

There were no confirmed deaths from football-related violence in Sudan on Wednesday night.

An Egyptian witness in Khartoum on Wednesday night told dpa by phone that the rumours circulating in Egypt were 'wildly exaggerated,' but that Algerian fans had smashed the windows of six buses full of Egyptians on their way to the airport.

Egyptian Minister of Health Hatem al-Gabali told state television that only 21 Egyptians were injured in Sudan and said they had only suffered 'minor injuries.'

Egypt recalled its ambassador from Algiers for consultations on Thursday, citing the attacks.

Prior to the game, Egypt's Orascom Telecom saw its offices in Algeria destroyed, and the company was hit with nearly 600 million dollars in tax penalties from the government in Algiers.

The first of the match-ups in the last week took place following what the Algerian team alleged was the stoning of its bus in Cairo, leaving several players injured. Egypt won that game, setting up the playoff, which took place in Sudan under tight security.

'This is not civilizsed,' said Amr Yusef, a civil servant who drives a taxi at night, and who nevertheless had no kind words to say about Algerians or their mothers.

'Who benefits from all this?' he asked. 'The Israelis. They're sitting and laughing while the Arabs fight amongst themselves. And over what? A football match.'