At least 684 Egyptians were killed during clashes between demonstrators and police forces that erupted following the 18-day Egyptian uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, a rights watchdog said on Monday.
Earlier official figures by the Health Ministry said around 365 people were killed, while more than 5000 were injured across Egypt following the uprising that began on 25 January.
In a press conference, the Front to Defend Egyptian Protesters, a coalition of human rights groups, said that around 684 people were killed during the uprising. According to the front’s report, at least 340 people were killed on 28 and 29 January, when protesters clashed with hundreds of thousands of central security forces in at least ten Egyptian provinces. The front said another 276 people died in Cairo and 115 in Alexandria and the rest of the fatalities were divided between other governorates.
“It is extremely difficult to count the exact numbers, however we urge the Health Ministry to reveal the exact number which is expected to be higher than our 684 corpses,” said Nadeem Mansour, a human rights advocate at the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, one of the groups that compise the front.
The report explains that the causes of death varied from live ammunition, rubber bullets, pellets, suffocation by tear gas, and beatings. The majority of victims were students, workers or people from a lower class between 20 to 29 years of age.
Since 25 January, Egypt has experienced fierce clashes between civilians and security forces. Following a short period of calm, clashes erupted again, both between civilians and military policemen preventing protesters from breaking into state security offices, and between ordinary civilians.
