Clashes between pro- and anti-Morsy groups continued in Alexandria on Saturday after machete-wielding Salafis disrupted a protest on Friday.
Saturday’s clashes occurred outside Al Qaed Ibrahim mosque, whereas Friday’s were in Sidi Gaber and resulted in the intervention of Central Security Forces (CSF).
On Friday protesters demonstrating in front of Sidi Gaber railway station against President Mohamed Morsy’s constitutional declaration were challenged by local residents.
Zeyad Salem, who was among the protesters said, “at 9.15pm some of the Salafi residents came down to the protest with machetes and were threatening people. There was a fight but it was only small because there were not many people on the Salafi side.”
Another protester Ahmed Ismek said it was unclear who attacked the protesters. “People attacked the protest and they had swords and homemade pistols. I don’t know where they came from.”
Mohamed Soudan, a spokesperson from the Freedom and Justice Party in Alexandria, said, “local residents went to the protest and asked them to go home because they didn’t want them in their area any longer. There was a fight between the residents and the protesters and one of the residents was injured by the protesters.”
The CSF were slow to react according to Salem. “There was a CSF truck parked outside the station but they only intervened when they realised it was being aired on television,” he said.
Ismek said, “it was ironic because the CSF were protecting the protesters this time.”
However the violence continued as people threw rocks and broken glass at the protesters. Said salem, “because some of the people weren’t used to this sort of attack they began to panic so it probably looked worse than it was.”
The CSF fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop the attack.
A field hospital near the clashes reported that 22 people were injured. Some had cuts from blades and others were treated for tear gas inhalation.
According to Salem “the CSF didn’t arrest anyone who was standing there with a machete.”
