Ultras and police face off after match, 24 injured

Clashes between police forces and members of the Ultras Ahlawy group left 24 injured on Thursday night, according to the Ministry of Health.

Security sources said three officers and five soldiers were among the injured, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

The violence broke out during a match between Al-Ahly and the Tunisian Al-Safaqisi team in the CAF Super Cup Championship, which Al-Ahly won for the sixth time.

During the match, Ultras Ahlawy members began chanting slogans against the police forces and former Interior Ministry Habib al-Adly, one of the football fans told Mada Masr.

Video footage released after the game showed that police forces began tearing down the ultras’ banners in retaliation against the chants, provoking the football fans to throw water bottles and rocks at the security personnel.

Members of the fan group said that the banner in question was the “Banner of the Martyrs” commemorating the deaths of 72 Ultras Ahlawy members in the Port Said Stadium massacre of February 2012.

Police forces then launched a heavy volley of tear gas to clear the stadium. The violence moved outside the arena onto Salah Salem road, where eyewitnesses said that the police fired several rounds of pellet shots at the ultras members as they stood on the crowded road.

A video showed a group of Ultras Ahlawy fans severely beating a Central Security Forces soldier. The video went viral on social media and has been heavily condemned.