Tens of thousands rally on ‘Day of Departure’

Tens of thousands packed central Cairo yesterday on what they dubbed “the day of departure” in their campaign to remove President Hosni Mubarak.

Protesters waved flags and sung the national anthem, emboldened in their campaign after they repelled pro-regime attackers in two days of bloody street fights.

The US was pressing Egypt for a swift start toward greater democracy, including a proposal for Mr Mubarak to step down immediately.

Thousands including families with children flowed over bridges across the Nile into Tahrir Square.

In the wake of the violence, more detailed scenarios were beginning to emerge for a transition to democratic rule after Mr Mubarak’s nearly 30-year authoritarian reign. The Obama administration said it was discussing several possibilities with Cairo – including one for Mr Mubarak to leave office now and hand over power to a military-backed transition. Protesters in the square held up signs reading “Now!”, massing around 100,000 in the largest gathering since the quarter-million who rallied on Tuesday.

Thousands prostrated themselves in the noon prayers, then immediately after uttering the prayer’s concluding “God’s peace and blessings be upon you”, they began chanting their message to Mr Mubarak: “Leave! Leave! Leave!”

A man sitting in a wheelchair was lifted – wheelchair and all – over the heads of the crowd and he pumped his arms in the air.

Those joining in passed through a series of beefed-up checkpoints by the military and the protesters themselves guarding the square.

In the afternoon, a group of Mubarak supporters gathered in a square several blocks away and tried to move on Tahrir, banging with sticks on metal fences to raise an intimidating clamour. But protesters throwing rocks pushed them back.

The Arabic news network Al-Jazeera said a “gang of thugs” stormed its offices in continuation of attacks on journalists by regime supporters. It said the attackers burned the office and damaged equipment.

The editor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, Abdel-Galil el-Sharnoubi, said that policemen stormed its office and arrested 10 to 15 of its journalists.

Clashes with sticks and fists between pro- and anti-government demonstrators erupted in two towns in southern Egypt.