Egyptians Study Video of Deadly Soccer Riot, Seeking Answers Video from Egyptian television showed the chaotic aftermath of a game in the city of Port Said on Wednesday night, as thousands of spectators rushed on to the pitch at the final whistle. As my colleague David Kirkpatrick reports, Egypt's health ministry said that at least 73 soccer fans were killed on Wednesday night, and hundreds more wounded, in clashes that erupted after a match in the city of Port Said. Television images of the mayhem showed that hundreds of fans of the home team, Masry, poured on to the pitch after a 3-1 victory and began chasing players from the visiting team, Ahly, which is from Cairo. There were immediate questions about the apparent lack of security at the stadium, and instant replays after the game focused not on the action on the field, but on images of police officers standing by as fans rushed past them. Ahram Online, a state-owned news site, reports: Ahly's panicked players flooded the club's in-house television channel with phone calls to speak about the post-match horror and call on authorities to intervene and protect them. The security forces left us, they did not protect us. One fan has just died in the dressing room in front of me," veteran playmaker Mohamed Abou-Treika screamed during a phone call with the club's channel. People have died, we are seeing corpses now. There are no security forces or army personnel to protect us," attacking midfielder Mohamed Barakat added. Video from Ahly's television channel posted on YouTube showed that guests in the soccer club's studio were overcome with emotion as news of the tragedy poured in over the phone lines. Another Cairo news site, The Egypt Independent, reports that Ahly's team doctor suggested that the lack of security for the club's players and fans was not accidental. Speaking to Ahly's television channel by phone, Dr. Ehab Ali called the violence at Port Said Stadium "a war that had been planned." The Independent's report also notes that "many of those present pointed out the conspicuous and near complete absence of security forces and their abandonment of regular protocol in securing football matches." The news site added: "Eyewitnesses confirm that security was largely absent when the Masry fans stormed the field. They also claim that security forces allowed Masry fans to enter the visitor teams stands. Late Wednesday, Al-Masry Al-Youm, an independent Cairo daily, showed Ahly's players being evacuated from the stadium in an armored personnel carrier. The fact that Ahly's most ardent supporters, known as the Ultras, are known to have played an active role in the protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak - in part by fighting back against the police in the revolution's first days - instantly led to speculation from Egyptian activists like Mostafa Hussein that the violence against the club's players and fans might have been allowed to happen. Last April, a member of Ahly's Ultras told a reporter for The National, an Abu Dhabi newspaper, that during the revolution, "our role was to make people dream, letting them know if a cop hits you, you can hit them back, not just run away. This was a police state. The Egypt Independent also noted that Ziad El-Elaimy, a member of Egypt's new Parliament, suggested that the authorities had provoked the riot in order to justify continued military rule: "What happened cannot be a coincidence. This massacre and three armed robberies happened only one day after the Minister of Interior came to parliament trying to convince us of the importance of maintaining the State of Emergency. Doctors quoted by Ahram Online said that many of the dead were trampled to death or died of suffocation in the melee. Adel Abdel Ghafar, an activist blogger, explained on Twitter that a private television channel was reporting that "there was a stampede at one of the gates that was closed with metal bars" and "people were crushed to death" as they tried to escape the stadium. He added that activists in Cairo planned to march to the interior ministry on Thursday to protest the breakdown in security at the match. Mr. Ghafar also noted that a message of condolence was posted online by Liverpool Football Club, an English team whose fans were involved in two deadly stampedes in the 1980s. In 1985, 39 supporters of the Italian soccer team Juventus were crushed to death after attacks by Liverpool fans at a stadium created a panic. Four years later, 96 Liverpool fans died when they were forced into fencing in overcrowded pens during a match. When Ahly's players finally returned to Cairo, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the military council still ruling Egypt, met them at the airport. The de facto head of state, who was Hosni Mubarak's defense minister, used the opportunity to urge Egyptians to cooperate with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to restore security, prompting groans of frustration from activists calling for the military to relinquish power. In a post on his Arabawy blog, the Cairene journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy directly accused the military council of staging the incident. "Those who run this state know every trick in the book," he write. This massacre that took place in Port Said tonight is only one scene in this ongoing play conducted, directed and executed by SCAF, our present day Pharaohs. A liberal activist who blogs as The Big Pharaoh reported on Twitter that the country's largest political party, the Muslim Brotherhood, released a statement connecting the mayhem at the stadium to clashes on Tuesday between its supporters and protesters calling for an immediate end to military rule outside Egypt's parliament building. Taken together with Tuesday's attempt by the Muslim Brothers to shut down the street protest, the statement reinforced new fears among liberal activists that the Islamists who took part in their protests against the Mubarak government last year now now intend to side with the military council, to protect the power they gained in recent elections.