Looters rip heads off 2 mummies at Egyptian Museum

[FourScore]

Looters rip heads off 2 mummies at Egyptian Museum
AP
By MAGGIE HYDE and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Maggie Hyde And Maggie Michael, Associated Press – 4 mins ago

CAIRO – Would-be looters broke into Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum, ripping the heads off two mummies and damaging about 10 small artifacts before being caught and detained by army soldiers, Egypt's antiquities chief said Saturday.

Zahi Hawass said the vandals did not manage to steal any of the museum's antiquities, and that the prized collection was now safe and under military guard.

With mass anti-government protests still roiling the country and unleashing chaos on the streets, fears that looters could target other ancient treasures at sites across the country prompted the military to dispatch armored personnel carriers and troops to the Pyramids of Giza, the temple city of Luxor and other key archaeological monuments...

SNIP

"...What scares me is that if this building is destroyed, it will fall over the museum," Hawass said as he watched fire trucks spray water on the still smoldering NDP headquarters...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_egypt_protest_antiquities

[Codeine]

1. Yikes.

Leave the cultural treasures alone, dudes.

[DURHAM D]

2. I bet this event will work its way into a storyline on Bones. nt

[dipsydoodle]

3. There's now a line of tanks outside it

with a line of protesters sitting in front of them amicably.

The problem yesterday was there were no fire trucks on the streets at all.

Chances are that the vandals were security in plain clothes hoping the protesters would be blamed.

[Stevenmarc]

4. Looters and mummies, not exactly a new thing

More like an Egyptian tradition

[backscatter712]

5. By "looters" do we actually mean "police provocateurs"?

Seems like it to me...

[sufrommich]

6. Interesting that the "looters" didn't bother taking anything .

I imagine most of those artifacts would get astronomical prices on the black market. Hmmm.

[malaise]

9. Many persons made the same observations

on Al Jazeera.

[Raine]

7. Hopefully these things can be kept safe

otherwise what a loss to the world. :-(

[CAG]

8. That'll show Mubarek!!!! nm