Organisers of the 2013 New Year's Eve celebration in Tahrir Square ended the event prematurely after a group of about 30 men took over the makeshift stage and prevented artists from finishing scheduled performances.

Independent publisher Mohamed Hashem, who was forcibly brought down from the stage by the group, told Al-Ahram Arabic news website that some of those men were friends of activist Mohannad Samir, who was gunned down by unknown assailants in the square earlier in the day.

Samir, a member of April 6 Youth Movement, sustained birdshot wounds in the head and neck and remains in critical condition at Ahmed Maher hospital. He was a well known figure to many in Tahrir, and was jailed for eleven months following his arrest along with 269 protesters in the aftermath of the Cabinet clashes in December 2011.

Some of the attendees failed to convince Samir's friends to allow the celebration to proceed as the angry men insisted it must be cancelled in respect for their injured comrade.

A group of musicians, actors and poets, icluding the revolutionary band Iskendrella, were scheduled to give performances on the stage. 

The 2012 celebrations were marked in the square by thousands who sang revolutionary songs for hours.