CAIRO (AFP) – In their tens of
thousands, they cheered, ignited firecrackers and honked horns as soon
as the army announced President Mohamed Morsi's rule was over, ending
Egypt's worst crisis since its 2011 revolt.
Camped out in Cairo's
iconic Tahrir Square for a week, the anti-Morsi protesters let loose
with an outburst of joy when military chief General Adel Fattah al-Sisi
brought them the news they all were waiting to hear.
As the din
rang out for over an hour in Tahrir, epicentre of the Arab Spring
uprising that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak, groups of overjoyed
revellers carried members of the security forces on their shoulders as
heroes.
Across town near Nasr City, where Morsi's Islamists had
gathered in a counter-demonstration, one celebrator Omar Sherif said:
"It's a new historical moment. We get rid of Morsi and the Muslim
Brotherhood".
The protesters had been forced to wait anxiously
until the announcement at around 9:00 pm (1900 GMT), with the crowd
building up slowly as day turned to night.
"Egypt, Egypt" and
"Leave, Leave," they chanted outside the defence ministry building, as
reports came in that the army was deploying dozens of armoured vehicles
near Islamist gatherings elsewhere in the capital.
With broad
grins, they sang patriotic songs they have become accustomed to hearing
as the same tunes have been pumped out on state television in the weeks
leading up to the crisis.
"Morsi deserves his end. He was the
president of the Muslim Brotherhood, not of Egypt," said Cairo resident
Amr Mohammed, who carried his 40-day-old daughter in his arms as he
marched to the Ittihadiya presidential palace.
A group of
housewives put a table in the street and handed out dates and free cups
of water, as celebrations erupted when a television station reported
that Morsi had been placed under house arrest.
Upon hearing the rumour, one elderly man kneeled down on an Egyptian flag and said "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
That
report proved unfounded, but officials did say security forces had
imposed a travel ban on Morsi and his top Islamist allies over their
alleged involvement in a 2011 prison escape.
Abdel Khalek Abo
Risha, 56, who came to the protest from Tanta city in the Nile Delta,
said: "I only expect Morsi to be toppled. No other options".
Nehal
Serry, a woman who helped to organise the refreshments, said: "This is
for the sake of Egypt. We are celebrating that we are getting rid of
Morsi".
The gathering in Tahrir dwarfed a rally by the embattled president's supporters in Nasr City.
"Come
here O Sisi, Morsi isn't my president," the protesters chanted,
referring to army chief and defence minister, General Sisi.
The
powerful military had issued a 48-hour deadline on Monday for Morsi to
meet the "people's demands", a day after millions of protesters took to
the streets across the troubled country calling for him to resign.
But
thousands of people had gathered in Nasr City in a show of support for
Morsi, despite an attack by a group of men that killed 16 of them and
left 200 injured overnight.
That was before the military moved in
to disperse them, however, with AFP correspondents reporting they had
seen dozens of armoured personnel carriers ominously heading to Islamist
gatherings at Cairo University, Heliopolis, and Nasr City.
A
military officer said later that the "Islamists are not allowed to get
out of Rabaa Square today, so that they can't cause any chaos".
Dozens
of military armoured personnel carriers completely surrounded the
square, with troops putting up barbed wire and helicopters buzzing
overhead.
Those inside could be heard firing birdshot, although they were outgunned and remained stuck behind the barricades.
Army
vehicles surrounded the protest outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in
Nasr City, where Morsi supporters have been camping out for days vowing
to defend his legitimacy.
"It's a coup d'etat against an elected president," said Ahmed Abulmagd in Nasr City. "Morsi was betrayed."
Other parts of the capital were eerily quiet, as many chose to stay at home in fear of becoming caught up in more bloodshed.
"I'm
so worried, the future of my country will be written in the next few
minutes," said one taxi driver as he waited for passengers in a
neighbourhood where the shops were all boarded up.
Mr Morsi has not been seen in public since 3 July
