BBC News Middle East
3 February 2011 Last updated at 10:31 GMT
The BBC's Jon Leyne: "The army is now willing to support the anti-Mubarak
protesters"
Egypt's prime minister has apologised for the fighting between pro- and
anti-government demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square, which killed five
people and wounded several hundred.
Ahmed Shafiq pledged to investigate the violence, calling it a "fatal error".
Pre-dawn gunfire lasted for two hours as anti-government demonstrators tried to
stay in control of the square.
The protesters are demanding that President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled for 30
years, step down immediately.
Egypt's Health Minister Ahmed Samih Farid said earlier that five people had
died in the fighting, which began on Wednesday, and 836 were injured - mostly
as the result of stone throwing and attacks with metal rods and sticks.
"This is a fatal error," Mr Shafiq told the privately-owned al-Hayat
television. "When investigations reveal who is behind this crime and who
allowed it to happen, I promise they will be held accountable and will be
punished for what they did."
"There is no excuse whatsoever to attack peaceful protesters, and that is why I
am apologising," he said, urging the protesters "to go home to help end this
crisis".
Mr Mubarak has said that he will serve out his current presidential term, which
ends in September, but will not run for re-election.
Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei and the Muslim Brotherhood have
rejected government calls for negotiations, saying Mr Mubarak must leave office
first.
Meanwhile, the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain issued a
joint statement condemning the violence and calling for a political transition
that "must start now".
Tahrir Square focus
On Wednesday, groups fought pitched battles in Cairo, in the worst violence in
10 days of protests.
There's another tense day ahead.
We've moved around to other side of Tahrir Square. There's more movement by the
military, with armoured vehicles moving around, but not the numbers you'd have
thought would be needed to bring control.
There has been gunfire, ambulances on site, people been dragged out, stones and
Molotov cocktails being thrown.
The numbers of those here in support of the president is fewer than we saw
yesterday, so the question remains whether we'll see more of those or more
anti-government protesters today.
The unrest has left about 300 people dead across the country, according to UN
estimates.
Cairo's Tahrir Square has been the main focus of the protests, and a group of
anti-Mubarak protesters remains hemmed in there by barricades.
They said they had detained 120 people with ID cards linking them with police
or the ruling party, most of whom had been caught attacking demonstrators on
Tahrir Square.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo cites a retired general who has been speaking to
tank crews on the square as saying the army was losing patience, and if firing
continued from pro-government supporters, it was willing to fire on them.
Those attacking them appear to be either police who have taken off their
uniforms or plain-clothes "thugs", our correspondent says.
There were petrol bombs being lobbed during the night and now this morning
there's been gunfire.
The military leadership seems deeply uncomfortable with what is happening, adds
our correspondent; they do not want to turn on protesters but they are not
willing to defy the president either.
The US has urged all Americans in Egypt to leave "immediately".
'Very tense'
Speaking to the BBC early on Thursday, Mona Seif, a protester, described the
atmosphere as "very tense".
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"Every couple of minutes we hear a sequence of gunshots, and it's only on one
side of the square, which is the one close to Cairo Museum. This is where the
clashes have been going on for more than five hours now, completely non-stop,"
she said.
Wednesday's violence began when thousands of supporters of President Mubarak
surged into the square.
Continue reading the main story
Pro-government supporters shout slogans on top of a tank near Tahrir Square,
Cairo, 2 February 2011
* Pro-Mubarak camp 'well-organised'
* US 'concerned' at violence
* Square's place in history
* 'We are falling one-by-one'
"They started throwing stones at us," said an anti-government protester named
as Zaccaria. "Then some of us started throwing stones at them and then we
chased them out of the square. They returned once again with the horses and the
whips and the thugs."
Opposition supporters say many in the pro-government camp were paid by the
authorities to demonstrate, and allowed into the square by the troops
surrounding it.
The two sides pelted each other with stones in running battles lasting for
hours.
Egyptian troops refused to intervene, but fired into the air to try to disperse
people. On Wednesday, they called for demonstrators to return to their homes, a
call which was reiterated by Vice-President Omar Suleiman.
Clashes were also reported in Egypt's second city, Alexandria.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Egyptian Vice-President Omar
Suleiman in a phone call on Wednesday that the clashes were a "shocking
development" after days of peaceful protests.
She also "underscored the important role that the Egyptian armed forces have
played in exercising restraint in the face of peaceful demonstrations", the
state department said in a statement.
'Attitudes hardening'
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says he was handcuffed, blindfolded and
interrogated by Egyptian secret police, before being released after three hours.
Continue reading the main story
"Start Quote
The White House, as much as the pro-democracy protesters, is demanding
'Mubarak must go'"
End Quote Mark Mardell BBC North America editor
* Read Mark's thoughts in full
He says that the authorities' attitude appears to be hardening and the ruling
elite are fighting back.
The violence drew condemnation from British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"If it turns out that the regime in any way has sponsored or tolerated this
violence, that is completely unacceptable," he said after meeting UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon in London.
Mr Ban said: "Any attack against the peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable and
I strongly condemn it."
If Mr Mubarak does not step down, demonstrators have planned to march on the
presidential palace on Friday.
Meanwhile, internet services were returning to the country, having been cut off
for days by the government.
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