Suez Canal unaffected by Port Said unrest

4^min

Unrest in the Egyptian city of Port Said has not affected traffic in the Suez Canal, a spokesman for the strategic waterway said on Saturday according to state news agency MENA.

"The canal is far away of any political situation the country is facing and is safe and open to all ships passing through it," Suez Canal spokesman Tarek Hassanein told MENA.

"Attempts by some citizens to stop car ferries from crossing ... in the city of Port Said did not affect navigation in the canal," he added. Egypt's interior ministry raised a state of emergency in the Sinai peninsula on Saturday, saying it had intelligence that Jihadists might attack police there, state news agency Mena reported.

On another note, "The minister of interior has raised the level of emergency in north and south Sinai after receiving information that Jihadist groups intend to attack police buildings there," interior ministry official general Osama Ismail said, according to Mena.

Earlier, fans of Cairo's Al-Ahly club have stormed Egypt's soccer federation headquarters, setting it ablaze in anger after a court acquitted seven of nine police officials on trial for their alleged role in a deadly stadium melee last year.

Fire also swept through a nearby police club, but it was not immediately clear whether Al-Ahly fans were responsible for that blaze as well. Heavy black smoke billowed out of the rose-colored, three-story neocolonial building in central Cairo.

The fires followed a court verdict earlier Saturday that confirmed death sentences against 21 people for their role in the 2012 riot that killed 74 people after a game in the city of Port Said. The court also sentenced two senior police officers to 15 years in prison, but acquitted seven other security officials.

This as protesters untied moored speedboats used to supply shipping on the Suez Canal earlier in the day, apparently hoping the boats would drift into the waterway and disrupt passing vessels, witnesses said.

Military police recovered five boats and brought them back to shore in Port Said, but two were still drifting, one witness told Reuters.

About 2,000 protesters in Port Said also blocked car ferries from crossing the canal.

In Cairo, other soccer fans set fire to a police social club.

The stadium deaths occurred in February 2012 at the end of a match between Cairo's Al-Ahly and Al-Masry, the local side, and have been a flashpoint for protests.

Rioting after the death sentences were originally announced has underlined worsening security in Egyptian cities since the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

REUTERS/AP/LBCI