Egypt declares state of emergency after scores killed in Cairo crackdown

CAIRO

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood supporters run from police in a street leading to Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo on August 14, 2013. AFP photo

Egyptian security forces, backed by armored cars and bulldozers, moved on Aug. 14 to clear two sit-in camps by supporters of the country's ousted President Mohamed Morsi, showering protesters with tear gas, state television and security officials said.

The Egyptian presidency has declared a state of emergency across Egypt for one month starting at 4 p.m. local time following today's crackdown.

Egypt's health ministry said 278 people had been killed in nationwide violence, including 61  at the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo. 

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood said at least 250 people were killed and over 5,000 injured in police crackdown on two major protest camps held by supporters of Morsi.
 
"250+ confirmed deaths. Drs saying most critical patients will die from their bullet wounds. over 5000 wounded. biggest massacre since #coup," Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad said on Twitter.
 
There was no independent confirmation of the Brotherhood toll. 
 
An AFP correspondent at the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp had counted 124 bodies at the makeshift morgue.

A hospital at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square has said the death toll has risen to 163 and that the number of wounded people has reached close to 7,000.

Brotherhood says a leader's daughter killed in Cairo

The teenage daughter of a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader was reported killed Wednesday as police cracked down on a Cairo camp set up by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
 
Seventeen-year-old Asmaa al-Beltagui, daughter of wanted Brotherhood leader Mohammed al-Beltagui, was killed in clashes at the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp, Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad said.
 
A spokeswoman for the main pro-Morsi coalition, the Anti-Coup Alliance, told AFP the girl had been shot twice, once in the chest and once in the back.

Security forces control one protest camp

Egypt's interior ministry said security forces have "total control" over the smaller of two protest camps.
 
Al-Nahda Square was "totally under control" and "police forces have managed to remove most of the tents in the square," the ministry said.
 
A security official told AFP that dozens of Morsi supporters had been arrested with the help of residents from the area.
 
Television footage showed protesters who had been rounded up sitting in the ground handcuffed and surrounded by security forces.

An army bulldozer was removing mounds of sand bags and brick walls built by the protesters as a defense line in the Nasr City camp. Army troops, however, were not taking part in the operation. The simultaneous actions by the Egyptian forces - at the pro-Morsi encampment in Nasr City and at the site outside the main campus of Cairo University in Giza - began at around 7 a.m.

The pan-Arab Al-Arabiya TV is showing images of collapsed tents and burning tires at the Nasr City protest site. Ambulances are also seen at the scene, as well as some protesters being arrested and led away by the troops.

There is no threat agaist us: Botsalı

"There is no threat from the Egyptian people against us. Two tanks surrounded our embassy to protect us," Turkish Ambassador to Cairo Hüseyin Avni Botsalı told private broadcaster NTV.

Egypt halts trains to prevent demos moving outside Cairo

Egypt stopped all train services in and out of Cairo to prevent supporters of Morsi from reassembling after being dispersed from protest camps in the capital.
 
"Train services in and out of Cairo in all directions have been stopped until further notice... for security reasons and to prevent people from mobilising," the railway authority said.

Egypt arrests Brotherhood leaders, names not given: Official

A number of leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood were arrested, an official said, after security forces began clearing a camp of Cairo protesters who were demanding the reinstatement of Mursi.
 
"We have arrested a number of Brotherhood leaders but it's too early to announce their names," General Abdel Fattah Othman, a senior official in the Interior Ministry, told the privately-owned CBC TV channel.

Morsi supporters torch church in central Egypt: agency

Supporters of Mohamed Morsi torched a church in central Egypt in a reprisal attack as police dispersed demonstrations in Cairo, MENA state news agency said.
 
The assailants threw firebombs at Mar Gergiss church in Sohag, a city with a large community of Coptic Christians who comprise up to 10 percent of Egypt's 84 million people, causing it to burn down, the agency said.