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Egypt declares national emergency

One local resident says there is Egypt's presidency has declared a state of emergency after scores of people were killed when security forces stormed protest camps in Cairo.

The camps had been occupied by supporters of former president Mohammed Morsi, who was deposed in early July.

The health ministry says 149 people have been killed. But the Muslim Brotherhood, which backed the protests, says at least 2,000 have died.

The state of emergency is scheduled to last for a month.

A curfew will be in place in 11 provinces, including Cairo, starting at 19:00 (17:00 GMT).

The measure was taken because the "security and order of the nation face danger due to deliberate sabotage, and attacks on public and private buildings and the loss of life by extremist groups," the presidency said in a statement.

Shortly after dawn on Wednesday morning, armoured bulldozers moved deep into the main protest camp outside the eastern Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque.

Officials say the other protest camp, at Nahda Square, has been cleared.

Reporters described wounded protesters being treated next to the dead in makeshift field hospitals.

The 17-year-old daughter of leading Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohamed el-Beltagy was among the dead, reports say. Asmaa el-Beltagy was shot in the back and chest, her brother said.

A cameraman working for Sky News, Mick Deane, has also been killed - as has a reporter for Gulf News, Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz.

The White House condemned the bloodshed, saying the violence "runs directly counter to the pledges by the interim government to pursue reconciliation".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged "all Egyptians to concentrate their efforts on promoting genuinely inclusive reconciliation", his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Source: BBC


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