Thousands of Egyptian protesters gathered peacefully in Tahrir Square in central Cairo Saturday, demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down and cheering as though it were a World Cup victory.
Members of the military, riding in tanks and armoured personnel carriers, guarded important government buildings, but largely avoided clashing with protesters.
The ruling party's headquarters, next to the square, were still smoldering after being lit on fire during massive and violent protests the night before.
But on Saturday, with a shift to a more joyous and respectful tone among the crowds, people were picking up litter off the streets and throwing it in refuse bins.
However, police opened fired on the demonstrators around the area of Tahrir Square after thousands tried to storm the Interior Ministry. At least three were killed and their bodies were carried through the crowd of protesters.
The death toll since the largest anti-government protests in decades began Tuesday rose to 48, according to medical and security officials and witnesses at the demonstration. Of those, 41 have been killed since Friday. Some 2,000 injuries have been reported.
The military was protecting important tourist and archaeological sites such as the Egyptian Museum, home to some of the country's most treasured antiquities, as well as the cabinet building. The pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo — Egypt's premiere tourist site — were closed by the military to tourists.
Mr. Mubarak, who has not picked a vice-president since his took office in 1981, appointed his intelligence chief and confidante Omar Suleiman to the post, the official news agency said on Saturday.
The vice-president is the post that Mr. Mubarark occupied before he was appointed president.
Friday night, a defiant Mr. Mubarak attempted to reassure the Egyptian people that he is still the best man to deal with the grievances of the people, and would do so in an orderly way.
Mr. Mubarak said he was aware of people’s hopes to improve the economy and would take steps to do so “as soon as possible.” To that end, he announced that he had dismissed the government and would appoint a new cabinet Sunday.
But, emphasizing the “thin line that separates freedom and chaos,” Mr. Mubarak said that the violence of protesters in recent days was an attempt “to destabilize the country,” something he would not tolerate.
Delivered after midnight on state television, these were the words of a man looking over the abyss: the 30-year rule of the Egyptian President is hanging by a thread.
In scenes that haven’t been witnessed in this capital since the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952, tens of thousands of people protested in the streets on Friday, battling thousands of riot police that tried, and failed, to prevent the protesters from overrunning the city’s core.
By nightfall, Mr. Mubarak, as commander-in-chief, had ordered the Egyptian army to regain control of the capital, where the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was ablaze, and to restore order to other cities around the country where protesters had run amok.
Early Saturday, reports from the scene indicated that the Egyptian army had secured Cairo's famed antiquities museum, arresting looters and protecting thousands of priceless artifacts, including the gold mask of King Tutankhamen.
Some young men — armed with truncheons taken from the police — formed a human chain outside the main entrance in an attempt to protect the collection inside from the looters before the military arrived.
Ahmed Ibrahim, 26, said it was important to guard the museum because it “has 5,000 years of our history. If they steal it, we'll never find it again.”
Finally, four armored vehicles took up posts outside the massive coral-colored building in downtown Cairo. Soldiers surrounded the building and moved inside to protect mummies, monumental stone statues, ornate royal jewelry and other pharaonic artifacts.
The military is all that stands between Mr. Mubarak and an ignominious end.
“The police have surrendered,” said a leading Egyptian journalist for the independent al-Masry al-Youm newspaper. “Now we’ll see which way the army goes.”
A curfew was declared at sunset as tanks and armoured personnel carriers moved into the city while military helicopters flew overhead.
In the wake of the police departure, thousands of people made their way into Tahrir Square in the centre of the city while dozens of protesters tried unsuccessfully to fight their way into Egypt’s state television building.
