At least 15 people were killed Monday night in a brawl between Cairo street vendors over space, including 13 who were burned to death, a security source told AFP. The source said two people died of gunshot and stab wounds in an initial brawl in the Moski area in Old Cairo and 13 more were killed after the shop they took refuge in was set on fire. “Fifteen people were killed, including 13 who were burned to death, in a brawl between a number of vendors from two families … over an old disagreement on vendor spaces,” the source said. Security forces and firefighters moved into the area in the wake of the fight and put out the fire started during the brawl. They discovered the 13 bodies of people killed in the blaze and arrested several people, the source added. A security source told the Egyptian independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm that a team from the general prosecution was dispatched to inspect the site of the incident and ordered an autopsy to be carried out on the victims’ bodies. Major Gen. Osama al-Saghir, assistant to the Interior Minister for Cairo Security, said a violent dispute took place between the owner of the shop and some of the street vendors who had displayed their merchandise outside, prompting him to unload his gun and killing two of them. The rest of the vendors then set his shop on fire, with the owner and his employees hiding inside. All 13 bodies were charred, making them hard to be identified and requiring DNA tests, Saghir added. There were no initial indications that the deadly melee was linked to the political turmoil that has engulfed Egypt since the July 3 ouster of the Islamist president in an army coup.
Jul302013