300 Irish people assisted in leaving Egypt

Three hundred Irish people have been helped to leave Egypt since the current unrest began.

The Department of Foreign affairs continues to advise against all travel to Egypt.

Irish citizens in Egypt are advised to exercise extreme caution and to avoid all demonstrations.

Further clashes are possible in the coming days, particularly on Friday after noon prayers.

Eight people have died in clashes since yesterday.

The government has increasingly spread an image that foreigners were fuelling the turmoil.

“When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” Vice President Omar Suleiman said in an interview on state TV.

Suleiman told journalists he had invited the Muslim Brotherhood to enter negotiations with the government. He said the Brotherhood remains “hesitant” but underlined that it was a “valuable opportunity” for the fundamentalist movement.

The Brotherhood, which calls for an Islamic state in Egypt, is the top political opponent of Mubarak’s regime, which has always rejected any contact with the group and has launched heavy campaigns of arrests against it over past year.

The Brotherhood is among the many disparate anti-Mubarak groups organising the protests, though secular activists have so far dominated the movement. All have rejected any dialogue with the government before Mubarak steps down.