Protestors BREaK Down Palace Barriers in Cairo

Egyptian protesters break barriers

Several thousand people gathered outside the presidential palace in Cairo. A few hundred protesters should also have managed to get through the barricades around the palace.

Photo: Hassan Ammar / AP

Opponents of Egyptian President Morsi has again broken through the barricades around the presidential palace. 

The violent unrest in Egypt's capital Cairo continues Friday, according to, among others, the news agency AFP. Now, says vice president Mahmoud Mekki that one may be willing to postpone the vote on the new constitution proposal, which has been one of the causes of conflict.

- President Mohamed Morsi may accept to postpone the referendum if there will be any legal consequences of such exposure, says vice president Mahmoud Mekki told AFP on Friday night.

According to Egypt's state news agency is the beginning of the vote for Egyptians abroad postponed to Sunday instead of Saturday, as originally planned. This occurs at the request of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry says.

The committee does not say whether this will have consequences for the poll, which the President has determined to 15th December.

Promote the palace

Protesters will Friday have cut through a barbed wire fence that was put up to prevent them from getting closer to the palace.

Several hundred protesters should have been able to force their way to the wall around the palace itself, writes Reuters.

According to the news agency, some of the protesters have kissed the police and the military, while they shouted "peaceful, peaceful, peaceful." Others will have taken up spray cans and written that Morsi must resign.

10,000 protesters

It was announced prior to mass protests after Friday prayers.

Soldiers from The Republican garden should have caught up to the palace's main gate to secure the main entrance. On the outside of the military checkpoints have as many as 10,000 protesters stayed Friday. It is also put into tanks to improve safety.

- As far as I understand there are no obstructions between them and the palace now, just as it was on Tuesday, before the latest round of riots started, say correspondents in Cairo, Sigurd Falkenberg Mikkelsen.

Earlier this week there have been pure street battles between supporters and opponents of President Morsi.

Tanks were deployed in the area on Thursday after violent clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi. Seven people have been killed, hundreds have been injured.

Put the palace on fire

Thursday night some protesters managed to break into the palace itself , which they then set on fire. Outbreak, however, was quickly extinguished.

The expanded powers Morsi has given himself to speed up the process of adopting a new constitution has led to massive demonstrations by the secular opposition in recent weeks.

Constitutional Assembly submitted the draft of a new constitution for a couple of weeks ago. Morsi has announced that the people should vote on the proposal on 15 December, but for many the proposal was controversial even before it was on the table.

Constitutional Assembly is very controversial, because it has an overwhelming majority of Islamists. Liberal and secular legislators have resigned in protest because they believe that the draft has gotten too strong Islamic character.