By Omnia Al Desoukie
CAIRO: Military police stormed Egypt’s leading public hospital early Tuesday after a fight between one of the hospital guards and an army soldier, the hospital staff said.
Three guards were detained by the military, the added.
According to eyewitnesses, Qasr Al-Eini Hospital guard Waheed Khalaf, 30, rebuked a soldier for harassing a nurse in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Few minutes later four trucks stopped outside the hospital’s main gate and forces were deployed to “chase after the guards.”
“They took Khalaf and two others who were just standing nearby to C28 [military prison and prosecution in east Cairo]. He has 3 children and a wife, who is going to help those out if they send him to a military court?” said Haitham, a hospital guard who refused to give his second name in fear of reprisal.
The hospital is located inside the Cairo University’s school of Medicine, which like other educational institutions in Egypt forbids the entrance of any armed personnel.
The alleged attack took place outside the hospital building but on its premises.
The guards said that the dean of the med school tried to stop the troops explaining that there are patients in the intensive care unit, but they attacked him.
By the time Daily News Egypt reached the hospital later on Tuesday, there was little evidence of the incident with the exception of a few bullets that the guards saved to show the media. The guards said 50 shots were fired and ranged between rubber bullets and live ammunition. No bullet marks were visible on the building.
“We are not even armed to fight the thugs, whenever we call the military police to tell them that there are thugs storming the hospital they never send us special forces to fight back,” guard Mamdouh Zaki said.
The guards along with some doctors who witnessed the incident at 1 am sat in front of the Dean’s office on Tuesday morning. While the physicians left, the guards insist that they will not work unless they retaliate for their “dignity”.
Daily News could not reach the military police for a response.
