New protests after football deaths

The Cairo protests were sparked by riots at a football stadium in Port Said which left more than 70 people dead (AP)

Egyptian protesters run from tear gas fired by security forces during clashes near the interior ministry in Cairo (AP)

Protestors climb the exterior of a building during clashes with security forces near the interior ministry in Cairo, Egypt (AP)

Published: 6:54pm, 3rd February 2012
Updated: 2:37am, 5th February 2012

The number of people killed in clashes with Egyptian security forces in the wake of a deadly football riot has risen to eight, security officials said, as demonstrations continued in Cairo.

Protesters are keeping up their calls for an end to military rule and retribution for those killed in the post-game violence on Wednesday.

Several hundred protested in the capital's Tahrir Square and near the interior ministry, demanding police reforms. Others chanted for the execution of Egypt's military ruler who has been accused of mismanaging the country's transition to democracy.

The protesters are also angry with the police, accusing security forces of failing to prevent an attack and stampede after the football game in the Mediterranean city of Port Said that killed 74 people. It was Egypt's deadliest football riot and the world's worst football violence in 15 years.

It also highlighted the inability, and some say unwillingness, of Egypt's security forces to prevent such attacks in the year since former president Hosni Mubarak's removal.

On Fridaay, security forces in the port city of Suez opened fire on a crowd of several thousand outside the police headquarters, killing five people, a police official said.

Egypt's state news agency MENA reported the victims ranged in age between 18 and 21, and that the most recent victim died on Saturday of a gunshot wound he sustained the previous day.

Two protesters died in Cairo, where security forces used tear gas and birdshot to disperse thousands rallying outside the interior ministry.

Dozens of field hospitals were set up in streets near the ministry to assist hundreds of cases of suffocation from tear gas inhalation.

A security officer died after an armoured police vehicle ran him over in the mayhem outside the ministry, the security official said.