Seven die in Port Said violence

As many as seven people have been killed and over 460 others injured in clashes between protesters and police in the eastern Egyptian city of Port Said.

Sunday’s deaths occurred during a mass funeral procession held for most of 37 people, who were killed in clashes a day earlier, and when rioters exchanged gunfire with policemen at three police stations and outside Port Said’s main prison.

Tens of thousands of mourners took to the streets of the city for the funeral and shouted slogans against the government. Many of them exchanged fire with members of security forces, and many others tried to storm the police stations and the local prison. The clashes with the police left seven people, including a teenager, dead and 460 others injured.

Deadly violence erupted on Saturday in the Mediterranean city after a judge sentenced 21 local people to death for their roles in a football riot in Port Said in which 74 people were killed and 1,000 others injured in February 2012.

The protesters in Port Said were angry that people from their city had been found guilty of murdering 74 people, who were killed in the riot that broke out after Port Said-based Al-Masry defeated Cairo’s Al-Ahly 3-1.

Nine people were killed by gunfire during clashes between police and protesters in Suez on Friday, which was the second anniversary of the beginning of the revolution that toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Thousands of Egyptians staged demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, and many other cities and towns to call on President Mohamed Morsi, who took office in June 2012, to fulfill his election promises.

The Egyptians launched the revolution against the pro-Israeli regime on January 25, 2011, which eventually brought an end to Mubarak’s 30-year-long dictatorship on February 11, 2011.