One night in Tahrir

It took a few hours of persistence to get into Tahrir square this evening, but I made it eventually. By the time I arrived, the anti-Mubarak protesters had barricaded the street by the Egyptian Museum just north of the square, using metal sheets and burned out vehicles. The protesters rained a literal hail of stones upon the pro-Mubarak 'demonstrators' – some of whom were captured and found to have security service ID's and are largely believed to be a government orchestrated 'rent-a-mob' – who had attempted to take Tahrir square earlier in the afternoon. 

The traffic must have been two way - I was taken to a make shift hospital in a precinct beside the square where doctors were treating a stream of injured demonstrators.

Tonight it really felt like the Tahrir demonstrators were fighting for their survival - many of the pro-Mubarak crowd were believed to be armed with sticks, knives and such. It sounds corny to repeat, but one old guy smashing up kerbststones to be thrown said: "We are doing this for our freedom." He looked me straight in the eye and meant every word. It sent shivers up my spine.