Water Cannons Used on ElBaradei
NBC News reports:
Tens of thousands of Egyptian anti-government protesters clashed Friday with police in Cairo, who fired rubber bullets into the crowds and used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.
It was a major escalation in what was already the biggest challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's 30 year-rule.
Police also used water cannons against Egypt's pro-democracy leader Mohamed ElBaradei
—a former U.N. nuclear watchdog and Nobel Peace Prize winner — and other protesters as they joined the latest wave of demonstrations after noon prayers.
Police used batons to beat some of ElBaradei's supporters, who surrounded him to protect him.
A soaking wet ElBaradei was trapped inside a mosque nearly an hour after he and his supporters were water cannoned.
Hundreds of riot police laid siege to the mosque, firing tear gas in the streets surrounding it so no one could leave. The tear gas canisters set several cars ablaze outside the mosque. Several people fainted and suffered burns.
NBC News reported that some demonstrators broke up stones from the street to hurl at police officers.
Protesters calling for an end to Mubarak's rule also gathered in a neighborhood near a Cairo presidential residence, witnesses told Reuters.
Mubarak, 82, has not been seen in public or heard from since the protests began Tuesday.
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