Tahrir SquareClashes and Surge
Clashes in central Cairo spread around Tahrir Square and streets leading to the Ministry of Interior after violence linked to families of people killed during the uprising.
Incident Overview
What happened
Police in Cairo fired tear gas at hundreds of stone-throwing youths after overnight clashes linked to an event involving families of people killed in the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak. The unrest spread toward Tahrir Square and the Interior Ministry.
Other reports place the origin around a memorial or gathering connected with families of “martyrs” at the Balloon Theatre in Agouza before clashes moved into central Cairo.
The incident is best treated as a protest-related disorder and crowd-surge case with heavy use of police force, conflicting casualty figures and unclear final official totals.
Recorded Details
Core facts
Date: 28–29 June 2011. The provided date is 28/06/2011; multiple sources describe violence beginning on the evening of 28 June and continuing through 29 June 2011.
Location: Tahrir Square and streets leading to the Ministry of Interior in central Cairo, Egypt. Related precursor activity was reported at the Balloon Theatre in Agouza, Cairo/Giza.
Specific streets reported: El-Falaki Street, El-Sheikh Rihan Street, Mohammed Mahmoud Street and Abdel Moniem Riad Square.
Reported injuries: 1,036 is the most repeated figure across Reuters, the Egyptian Health Ministry, Al Jazeera, ABC, the Washington Post and Egypt Independent. Ahram Online also recorded other figures of 65, 590 and 1,114.
Reported fatalities: Not verified. Ahram Online quoted a prime minister’s spokesperson saying there had been no deaths, while another field report noted unsubstantiated claims of a teenager’s death that paramedics denied.
Check disputed details →Key Figures
Reported Scale
Chronology
Incident Timeline
Operational Themes
Main issues
Disputed Details
Conflicting Information
These points are retained because the sources do not line up neatly. In incident reporting, tidy numbers often arrive before the truth has tied its shoes.
Several major sources repeat 1,036 injured, but live reporting recorded several other official figures.
Report 1,036 injured, including around 40 policemen or security personnel in some accounts.
Recorded 65, 590, 1,036 and later 1,114 injured at different points.
The figures likely reflect different moments in the reporting cycle and different official statements.
The reviewed sources do not give one clean detention total.
Reported that nine people were referred to the military prosecutor.
Later quoted an Interior Ministry official saying 34 suspects were arrested and transferred to military prosecution.
These may reflect different stages of detention, but that cannot be confirmed from the reviewed sources alone.
Sources agree on a link to families of people killed during the uprising but differ on the precise starting act.
Violence began after an event honouring the dead, when other bereaved relatives complained that their own dead were not mentioned.
Witness accounts said police attacked families outside the Balloon Theatre or dispersed a sit-in or memorial gathering.
The exact trigger remains unresolved in the reviewed material.
No fatality was verified in the source set, but unsubstantiated claims appeared in field reporting.
Stated that there had been no deaths from the clashes in Tahrir Square and the Balloon Theatre incident.
Noted claims that a young teenager had been shot dead, but stated the claim was unsubstantiated and paramedics denied fatalities.
Use “no fatalities verified,” not “zero fatalities confirmed beyond doubt.”
Not Verified
Unverified Details
The following points should not be treated as settled facts.
Source Material
References
News reports, live reporting, human-rights material and website sources listed in the incident file.
All Document URLs
Source Links
Direct links listed in the incident file.
