world's greatest collection of Pharaonic treasures, smashing several
statues and damaging two mummies, while police battled anti-government
protesters on the streets.
Arabiya television showed soldiers, armed and in battle fatigues,
patrolling the museum that houses tens of thousands of objects in its
galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen
collection. Display cases were shattered and several broken statues
and porcelain figures lay on the floor.
A number of display cases appeared to have been emptied of some of
their contents during Friday night's break-in.
Egypt's top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, told state television
Egyptians on the street had tried to protect the building, but that
the looters had entered from above. Two mummies on display had been
damaged.
"I felt deeply sorry...when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum
and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night,"
Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said.
The museum is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National
Democratic Party that protesters torched ad earlier set ablaze in
protests demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. Some
was still rising from the building on Saturday morning.
