This photograph showing police shooting at a crowd outside the football stadium went viral in the hours following the carnage It is a still from this video, showing how the police attacked the fans. Source: Twitter At least 25 fans of the Egyptian Zamalek football team died in violence in front of the Air Defense Stadium in the Nasr City in the province of Cairo where a football match between the Zamalek and ENPPI teams was getting started. The Zamalek fan group “Ultras White Knights” and the Egyptian Interior Ministry took to Facebook to state opposing versions of the events. The Ultras White Knights official Facebook page began posting on the events at 5.56pm with a post which read: “Breaking/ The interior [ministry] begins firing gas in front of the Air Defense Stadium and many cases of fainting and choking.” Approximately 40 minutes later, the Ultras announced that they had received reports of “martyrs dying.” At 6.53pm, the official Facebook page of the Interior Ministry issued a statement claiming that a large number of Zamalek fans arrived at the Air Defense Stadium without tickets to the game and attempted to storm the gates by force, and the security forces were summoned to prevent the fans from damaging the stadium's property. The ministry then called upon the fans to follow the rules and guidelines for attending the games. At 7.19pm, a photograph of the steel cage corridor that fans had to pass through before it collapsed was uploaded to the page. Minutes later, photographs of what seemed to be casualties from the events were also uploaded. At 7.45pm, the Ultras had reported that the number of dead had reached five. The page's cover and profile photographs were changed to plain black moments later. The Ultras uploaded two photographs of a list of 22 names of people it said were killed as of 9.52pm. By 12.07am, the number of dead had reached 28. At 10.16 pm, the Interior Ministry issued another statement on its Facebook page claiming that the number of fans who had gathered at the gate without tickets was over 10,000 and that they attempted to push their way through and jump over the fence. Tens of them were injured as a result, and those injured were transported to nearby hospitals, according to the statement. The statement continued: “The forces dispersed them. They [the fans] then moved to the road leading to the stadium and blocked both ways of the traffic, forced the vehicle that was carrying the Zamalek Sports Club players to stop, prevented it from reaching the stadium, and set fire to one of the police cars. They have been dispersed, and the players’ and the coaching staff's arrival at the field has been secured. We have heard reports of cases of fatalities among the injured due to the stampede; the public prosecution has been informed and the completion of the investigation process is underway.” The Zamalek fan page labeled the event as a “planned massacre”, pointing out that the “steel cage” – in a reference to a narrow steel corridor that the crowds of people had to pass through to enter the stadium – was set up one day before the match. The page also claimed that Mortada Mansour, the chairman of the Zamalek Sports Club, had purchased all of the tickets to the match in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior. A video that has been circulating among Egyptian social media users shows the early moments of the incident. A large crowd of fans are seen hoping to enter the stadium. A group of security forces blocked the way to the stadium. Voices can be heard from the crowd shouting, “People are dying!” The security forces did not move. After approximately a minute and a half, a voice near the camera shouts: “The people are dying! Open up! The people are dying!” Moments later, the steel caged passage collapsed on those inside under the weight of a number of people who had gotten on top of it. The security forces are then seen backing slightly away and raising their batons as the crowd began to spread out. The video then shows an armored vehicle approaching the area and launching tear gas canisters into the crowd. In another video posted on YouTube, police are seen shooting what seems to be a round of bird-shot into the crowd: The Ultras White Knights The Zamalek sports club ultras fan group “Ultras White Knights” was established on March 17, 2007, according to its official Facebook page. The group's sports-related statements, fan-gear advertisements, and graffiti work make up most of the page's posts. The group has announced in numerous statements that it has nothing to do with politics and allows its members to take part in any political activity so long as they do not use the group's name while doing so.