became clear, it was obviously apparent to the army it was about to become a serious event of bloodshed, perhaps a massacre. it prompted them to do the action you are seeing now. as brian reported, firing warning shots. what we are seeing looks like the effect of this is to make people who may be using weapons, molotov cocktails or guns if they have them, not be able to aim. to want to leave the area and keep the two different groups apart from each other. it looks like the tank is moving fast. is it going to hit people? reporter: people are running from it. what they do with the smoke screen is allow people to leave under cover. if the idea was to allow the supporters of president mubarak to leave without being lynched by the protesters, then this
that would be a very encouraging sign. also, it shows the level of how quickly things have deteriorated here. we have not seen anyone hit at this stage. can you tell what the effect was of the line of smoke laid down by the tank that we saw? i think yes, brian pointed out, the tank is once again on the move, ejecting this smoke screen as it goes. it did have an impact. it did allow some people to escape. emotions are clearly very high. this hannan all day battle really with protesters trapped in the square. many people getting injured. at least 600 hurt probably on both sides. as it was breaking apart and as the battle lines no longer
it has not moved. it has not turned. in fact, some of the pro-mubarak demonstrators were running behind it and taking position behind it to fire in the direction of the protesters. the tanks are not moving between the protesters. you can see a tank. it just turned on the engine. this could be yet another turning point if that tank moves to change the situation. it is just turning on the engine now. it is not moving. it s running for safety trying to leave the area. the protesters are back behind the egyptian museum. you can see the main building in the center here. there have been many fires over the course of the day set by it.
egypt. it seems clear it will not work this time. egyptian president hosni mubarak spoke calling the protesters loote looters, arsonists. he was railing against the angry mobs who are the protest tors against him. all the press reports coming from press were describing protest scenes as jubilant, joyful, a carnival-like atmosphere. were they describing reality? no, they weren t. he was saying his strategy, what he was about to do and what was about to happen. we were able to report last night, here it comes. we were already getting reports at that point that president mubarak s people would be out in the streets today looking for blood, looking to make it come true. looking to make the protest seem
the museum appears to be the main blocking point that could be in the line of fire. retreating pro-government demonstrators while the targets apparently, the protesters are on the backside of the museum. richard, as you know, the whole world is watching. the rest of the worlds is trying to figure out whether or not this is protesters versus protesters or against their own citizens. i don t want you to report against what you can tell. can you tell what type of weaponry is being fired? is this the kind of weaponry in civilian hands? is that military grade or police grade stuff? can you tell who is who? reporter: the weapons are fairly common.