Angry protesters are reportedly attempting to block traffic into Tahrir Square, following a widespread reports of a possible poisoning incident before the Cabinet sit-in. Minor clashes between shop-owners and protesters have also been reported. 

Sixty protesters staging a sit-in before the Cabinet headquarters on Maglis Al-Shaab Street in downtown Cairo suffered severe food poisoning – with at least eight being hospitalised – after an unidentified woman provided them with Hawawshi (spicy minced meat sandwiches).

A field hospital doctor has refuted claims of any deaths.

According to eyewitnesses, a veiled woman in her 40s wearing “a pair of jeans and a coat,” got out of a car at the Cabinet headquarters and distributed the sandwiches to demonstrators.

Shortly afterwards, dozens of protesters began to vomit and faint as a possible result of food poisoning. Twelve ambulances eventually arrived at the scene and rushed them to hospital.

The incident has prompted speculation that the sandwiches had been deliberately contaminated with the intention of inflicting protesters with food poisoning and thus forcing their departure from the area.

Other demonstrators reported the incident to police, calling for the arrest of the unidentified woman and a full-scale investigation into what happened.

“Protesters kept throwing up and fainting – one every two minutes,” activist Sayed El-Salamoni told Reuters.

Hundreds of protesters who oppose last month’s appointment of Kamal El-Ganzouri as prime minister have been holding an open-ended sit-in since 25 November outside Cabinet headquarters to prevent the 77-year-old, Mubarak-era politician from entering the premises.

Demonstrators are demanding the immediate transition of power from Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – which has governed the country since the February ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak – to an elected, civilian authority.