As my colleague Kareem Fahim reports, Egyptian journalists who rushed to the scene of a bombing near the campus of Cairo University on Wednesday captured two subsequent explosions on video.
A camera from the news site Youm 7, apparently switched on in the immediate aftermath of the first explosion, was recording when the second bomb exploded less than a minute later near a guard house used by the police during recent student demonstrations.
Video of an explosion at Cairo University on Wednesday from the Egyptian news site Youm 7.
Youm 7 also released very graphic images of a frantic effort to save the life of the police officer killed in the twin bombing, identified by the authorities as Brig. Gen. Tareq el-Margawi.
Journalists from Egypt’s ON TV were broadcasting live from the scene when the third bomb detonated about two hours later on the other side of the guard house, as investigators scoured the site for clues.
Video of the third explosion at Cairo University on Wednesday from Egypt’s ON TV.
The third blast took place shortly after 1 p.m. local time, according to the on-screen clock of one live broadcast that was interrupted by the explosion.
Video of a television reporter ducking for cover as a third bomb exploded at Cairo University on Wednesday.
Amid a wider crackdown on dissent, Egyptian universities have become a central focus for protests against the military-backed government that deposed President Mohamed Morsi last year, in part because of restrictions on police access to campuses. As the Cairo-based journalist and blogger Ursula Lindsey explained in December:
The protests were originally led by Islamist students who were against the military’s removal of Mr. Morsi and who demanded justice for hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators killed when the police cleared a sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in Cairo in mid-August. But as the police crackdown has intensified, the protests have been joined by students with a broad range of political beliefs.
The role of security forces on campuses has long been a sensitive issue. When Hosni Mubarak was president, police and intelligence officers encroached on academic affairs, rigging student-union elections, vetting the content of conferences and events and interfering in academic appointments. Banning the police from university campuses was a key demand of student and faculty activists for years.
Ahram Online, a state-owned, English-language news site, reported that 15 students were “arrested in the vicinity of the university and taken to Giza security directorate for questioning,†after the bombings, according to a police source.
Al-Masry Al-Youm video of young men being detained following the bombings at Cairo University on Wednesday.
The British freelance journalist Louisa Loveluck, who was present when the third blast went off, witnessed the rough detention of two young men.
The interim authorities have blamed the banned Muslim Brotherhood for a wave of terrorist attacks targeting the security forces since Mr. Morsi, a leader of the group, was forced from office nine months ago, even as other militant groups have claimed responsibility. A senior Brotherhood official, Amr Darrag, condemned the bombings on Twitter Wednesday, although he also faulted the police for failing to secure officers against attack.
Mr. Darrag, a senior official in the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which ran Mr. Morsi’s successful campaign for the presidency in 2012, also defended Students Against the Coup, a protest group led by Islamist students who oppose the military-backed interim government. “The student movement is peaceful and will remain peaceful. I support the condemnation of the attack by the spokesperson of Students Against the Coup,†he wrote, according to a translation from Mada Masr, an independent Cairene news site.
Follow Robert Mackey on Twitter @robertmackey.
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