Further unrest across Egypt's Delta, Morsi speech fails to placate critics

Clashes in Egypt's Nile Delta leave one dead and dozens injured, President Morsi's late-night speech sparks further protests

Ahram Online

"One person was killed and 298 injured in violence across Egypt's Nile Delta late on Wednesday, health officials confirmed.

In Daqahliya's Mansoura opposition protesters came to blows with hundreds of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that propelled Mohamed Morsi to power.Two hundred and forty-three were injured in Daqahliya governorate, 53 in Sharqiya and two in Gharbiya in clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi.
Dozens of Brotherhood supporters are still trapped inside Mansoura's Al-Gamieya Al-Sharaiya Mosque by angry residents who have besieged the building since Wednesday afternoon. Police are at the scene but have failed to disperse the protesters.

Morsi's speech

Similar confrontations took place in Gharbiya and Sharqiya on Wednesday night, hours before the president gave a lengthy televised address reviewing his first year in office.
In the Nile Delta's Menoufiya governorate opposition supporters locked horns with around three thousand pro-Morsi protesters in Shibin Al-Koum city.
Morsi acknowledged failures, offered reforms and listed achievements, but otherwise seemed uncompromising amid mounting demands for his removal.

Thousands of angry protesters went on several mass marches in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate after the president's speech, which lasted almost three hours and ended after midnight.
Morsi's address came just two days before planned nationwide protests to demand his removal.
In the canal city of Suez, hundreds of protesters from youth and revolutionary movements took to the streets in the early hours of Thursday to voice their anger at the speech.
In Cairo, thousands gathered outside the defence ministry and in Tahrir Square where big screens had been set up to broadcast the speech.
Some protesters in Tahrir Square held their shoes aloft in a sign of contempt during the speech, while others held up red cards in reference to mounting demands for the president to step down.
Some protesters in Tahrir Square began a sit-in following the speech, setting the stage for protests on 30 June, state news agency MENA reported."