Protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi help a man suffering from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes, along Qasr Al-Nile bridge, which leads to Tahrir Square in Cairo, Sunday. — Reuters CAIRO — Gunshots rang out in Port Said Sunday as people packed the streets for the funerals of 33 protesters killed at the weekend in the city, part of a wave of violence that has compounded challenges facing President Mohamed Morsi. Some in the crowd chanted for revenge or shouted anti-Morsi slogans and teargas was fired in the vicinity, a witness said by telephone, adding that he heard emergency vehicle sirens after the shots were fired. “Our soul and blood, we sacrifice to Port Said,” people chanted, as the coffins were carried through the streets. There were no immediate reports of further casualties in the city, where 33 people were killed on Saturday when residents went on the rampage after a court sentenced 21 people, mostly from the city, to death for their role in a deadly stadium disaster in Port Said last year. Elsewhere in Egypt, police fired teargas at dozens of stone-throwing protesters in Cairo in a fourth day of clashes. Protests in the capital and other cities erupted at the end of last week over what the demonstrators say is a power grab by Islamists two years after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. The protesters accuse Morsi, elected in June with the support of his Muslim Brotherhood group, of betraying the democratic goals of the revolution. Since protesters hit the streets Thursday, 42 people have been killed, most in Port Said and Suez, both cities where the army has now been deployed. The violence adds to the daunting task facing Morsi as he tries to fix a beleaguered economy and cool tempers before a parliamentary election expected in the next few months which is supposed to cement Egypt's transition to democracy. It has exposed a deep rift in the nation. Liberals and other opponents accuse Morsi of failing to deliver on economic promises and say he has not lived up to pledges to represent all Egyptians. His backers say the opposition is seeking to topple Egypt's first freely elected leader by undemocratic means. “None of the revolution's goals have been realized,” said Mohamed Sami, a protester in Cairo's Tahrir Square Sunday. “Prices are going up. The blood of Egyptians is being spilt in the streets because of neglect and corruption and because the Muslim Brotherhood is ruling Egypt for their own interests.” The army, Egypt's interim ruler until Morsi's election, was sent back onto the streets to restore order in Port Said and Suez, which both lie on the Suez canal. In Suez, at least eight people were killed in clashes with police. Egypt's defense minister who also heads the army, Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, called for the nation to stand together and said the military would not prevent peaceful protests. But he called on demonstrators to protect public property. Many ordinary Egyptians are frustrated by the regular escalations that have hurt the economy and their livelihoods. “They are not revolutionaries protesting,” said taxi driver Kamal Hassan, 30, referring to those gathered in Tahrir. “They are destroying the country.”— Agencies
