A man was killed and four others were injured Friday in clashes over scarce fuel outside a gas station in Minya Governorate, Upper Egypt.
Security sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the fight began between drivers queuing in line to get fuel in a Malawi City gas station.
The fight escalated when one driver lost his eye, then called his relatives who smashed the cars of people who they believed to be involved in their relative’s injury.
The fight further developed when the infighting parties used live ammunition against each other. They exchanged fire with security forces who were trying to control the situation.
The corpse and the injured were transferred to Minya Educational Hospital, while Central Security Forces were summoned to cordon the area.
Egypt has been witnessing fuel crises periodically since the ouster of President Mubarak in February 2011. The most recent wave of the crisis began in mid-March, and the government announced on Thursday that the crisis began to ease in Cairo, although complaints about shortages of gas continue.
Egypt will lose LE30 million from the fuel crisis because of the haphazard supply of gasoline and diesel fuel, Hesham Saadallah, a senior supply ministry official, projected on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Imam Baraka, a member of the general division of petroleum products at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that the shortage of petroleum products has reached 40 percent across Egypt.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
