Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo’s central square on horses and camels as others rained firebombs from rooftops in an apparent orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple Egypt’s autocratic leader of 30 years.

SCENES of mayhem and violence in Cairo added to the fear already running high in the capital of 18 million people after a weekend of rampant looting and lawlessness and the escape of thousands of prisoners from jails in the chaos.

Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo’s main square today, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of uncontrolled violence as soldiers stood by without intervening.

Anti-government protesters clashed violently with supporters of President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo today as Egypt’s political upheaval took a dangerous new turn.

CURATORS lifted the lid yesterday on a long-awaited London exhibition of treasures from the tomb of teenage Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, more than 30 years after he first cast his spell in Britain.

EGYPTIAN police yesterday detained about 200 people from the home villages of the three attackers responsible for a bomb blast and tour bus shooting near Cairo tourist sites the day before, authorities said.

Two veiled women shot at a tour bus, and the fiance of one of the women blew himself up as he leaped off a bridge during a police chase today, wounding seven people in the second strike on tourists in less than a month.

A second explosion near tourist sites – possibly carried out by two suicide bombers – went off today less than two hours after a downtown blast that police said was either a suicide bomber or an assailant throwing an explosive device off a bridge.

A bomb was thrown from a bridge on to the street near a five-star hotel and the Egyptian Museum, killing an Arab man and injuring four foreigners, Cairo police said today.

An explosion was heard in central Cairo today, and the remains of a body, covered with newspapers, were seen lying beneath a bridge.

A reported four people were killed and 19 injured when an explosion apparently set off by a man on a motorcycle hit a popular tourist bazaar in Cairo’s Old City today.

An explosion in a bazaar popular with tourists near Cairo’s al-Azhar mosque today killed one person and wounded five others.

Three Italian schoolgirls have been taken to hospital after falling under the supposed curse of an Egyptian pharaoh.

Antiquities officials in Egypt today celebrated the return of a sculpture of a pharaonic queen’s head, which was smuggled to Britain as a cheap souvenir almost a decade ago.