Two shootings took place on the first day of elections runoffs Tuesday. No casualties were reported, according to the Ministry of Interior.
In the Beheira governorate, a security officer accidentally shot his colleague in the foot, while the ministry said he was safely transferred to the hospital.
However, another version of the story was reported in the media, saying the shooting occurred in the middle of a fight between security forces and a citizen who accused one of the guards of verbally harassing his sister as she was about to vote. The incident took place in front of a polling station in Etay El-Baroud in Beheira.
Following that, media reported that the citizen was detained by security forces inside the polling station and that angry residents gathered to object to his detention, so the police dispersed them using tear gas.
A media officer at the Ministry of Interior denied the news report in statements to Daily News Egypt Wednesday, maintaining that the accidental shooting incident was not preceded by any conflicts.
On the other hand, Wahdan El-Sayed, official spokesperson of the Beheira governorate confirmed a dispute had occurred and that the citizen was detained in a school in Etay El-Baroud.
“What happened is that a female voter was entering the school and a security guard was guiding her. This citizen was accompanying the female voter, but the security guard informed him he was not allowed to go inside with her, so the citizen assaulted the security man,” El-Sayed told Daily News Egypt.
El-Sayed said the crowds that gathered had already been present in the area all day during the elections, and that they indeed tried to demand the citizen’s release from the polling station, where he was detained by security forces.
“But there was no tear gas used,” El-Sayed said.
In another incident on Tuesday, the secretary of a polling station in the governorate of Assiut was mistakenly shot by a security guard cleaning his weapon, but the injury was trivial and he was able to carry on with his work, the ministry said.
