THIS IS AN image of the distressing scenes which unfolded at a police officers’ club in Cairo this morning.
The building was set alight after death sentences were upheld for 21 people involved in the Port Said riots last year.
Minutes after this police officers’ club was torched, the headquarters of Egypt’s Football Association was also ablaze.
Firefighters were working to put out the fire which spread through the building located in the same neighbourhood as this officers’ club, an AFP reporter said.
Football officials were holding emergency talks in Cairo to discuss upcoming fixtures around the country, state television reported.
The unrest comes hours after a court upheld death sentences for 21 defendants over a deadly football riot in Port Said last year and handed down life sentences to five defendants, with 19 receiving lesser jail terms and another 28 acquitted.
In Cairo, fans of Al-Ahly football club, whose members were killed in the February 2012 stadium riot in Port Said in which 74 people died, had warned police that they would retaliate if the defendants, including nine policemen, were exonerated.
