They huddled on floors and hid behind pillars – and the terror of Brotherhood supporters was seen on a chilling video feed
In a room inside the al-Fath mosque complex in Cairo's Ramses Square, two black uniformed police special forces officers paused for a moment during their assault on hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters trapped inside to pose with their guns and balaclavas for a Reuters photographer.
In the background were scorch marks on an ornate arch over a door. Other photographs depicted soldiers, weapons held at the ready, in another room close to the doors barricaded by supporters of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi.
Elsewhere in the mosque the scenes were of terror and panic. These were relayed not by photographers accompanying the assault but by the social media video streaming site Bambuser, which depicted what was happening on the other side of the mosque's barricades, where Islamist protesters have been under siege since Friday.
The intermittent feed showed those inside, some wearing gas masks, milling around on the mosque's green-carpeted floor as detonations – from what appeared to be stun grenades and teargas rounds – shook the building.
As some of those inside brought chairs and other furniture to reinforce the door – amid shouts and cries of "Alahu Akhbar" – yellow flashes and clouds of smoke were clearly visible. Other people were filmed hiding behind the mosque's heavy pillars, lying on the floor, or huddled against walls or on the floor, in scenes of abject terror.
At times the video cut out, leaving only frightened voices in the background against the sound of gunfire.
The two scenes provide the starkest of metaphors for the conflict in Egypt today, split between an army and interim government that has appeared determined to ruthlessly suppress the Brotherhood, and an organisation under siege determined to hold its ground at almost any cost.
By late afternoon on Saturday, security sources were claiming that the mosque had been retaken. According to state media all those inside had been moved out and many had been arrested, bringing to an end one of the last major remnants of the Brotherhood's sit-ins. By late afternoon, OnTV, the Egyptian live streaming service, was broadcasting pictures of lines of detained protesters kneeling on the floor surrounded by security forces.
The scenes of its siege – and the live feed from inside – will not be forgotten in a hurry. Those watching and commenting on the unfolding events included Egyptians and Arabs from across the Middle East.
One of those trapped inside was Hanan Amin, a professor at Zagazig university, who had been holed up for 24 hours in a cramped second-floor room. By midday she reported she was finding it difficult to breathe. One woman, she added, had already suffocated.
On Friday, the al-Fath mosque had simply been a place of prayer. Then it was turned into a makeshift field hospital to deal with those shot by police at a nearby pro-Morsi protest.
Some, women and children, had been allowed to leave. Bodies were also removed. But many stayed inside, vowing to remain until everyone was given safe passage. "If we are going to go," said Amin, "we will go with honour."
Another woman trapped inside the mosque was Omaima Halawa, an Irish Egyptian, who told al-Jazeera on Saturday morning there was shooting inside and outside the building. Automatic gunfire and screaming could be heard in the background as she spoke.
"How can we co-ordinate with the army and police when they are co-ordinating with the thugs [outside]? The thugs are in front of the mosque saying they will slaughter you. They are not protecting [people leaving]: they are trying to take them hostage. If we leave now we will be taken prisoner."
She was one of the trickle to emerge during the day. Her sister Fatima told the same channel that they were too frightened to leave despite the promise of safe passage by the military, having seen other women set upon by an angry mob as they tried to go. At one stage large numbers of vigilante groups, some armed with wooden staves, surrounded the mosque trying to get inside.
Television footage on Saturday showed surging groups of men attempting to attack one middle-aged man who had left the mosque. He was clutching a bloody head and was being pushed away by police with sticks.
The situation at the mosque escalated after several figures in the mosque's minaret appeared to open fire from a window near the top at police and soldiers beside their armoured personnel carriers in the square below.
Who fired and why became the subject of immediate claims and counterclaims, with the Muslim Brotherhood and one of the mosque's administrators claiming that the two doors to the minaret were not under the control of the protesters but the security forces.
According to one version of events, which could not be confirmed, tensions in the square appeared to escalate when a woman wearing a niqab tried to walk out of the mosque, according to an eyewitness who spoke to Reuters.
The eyewitness added that a group of about 10 soldiers had been telling people to leave the mosque and that they would be in no danger.
When the woman approached them, people in the mosque could be overheard saying that she was the wife of a Brotherhood leader and was in danger of being arrested.
She walked back into the mosque, looked up and said something to a group of pro-Morsi gunmen armed with AK-47 assault rifles. That is when the shooting started, said the witness.
For its part, the Egyptian presidency claimed that Saturday's gun battle was triggered by snipers inside the building.
The shooting provoked hectic scenes as soldiers and the gunmen exchanged heavy bursts of fire and gas was fired into the mosque.
Uncertainty about the exact state of affairs in and around the mosque and square was compounded by the assaults and detention of reporters attempting to cover the unfolding events, including Guardian and Observer correspondent Patrick Kingsley, who was arrested twice and robbed.
Kingsley was surrounded by a mob and accused of being a Brotherhood spy. After several blows, he was bundled on to a moped, relieved of his laptop and telephone and driven five miles to an unknown location – where two teenagers dragged him from one moped to another, and delivered him to a police station in Abbassiya, east Cairo.
"The problem," said one officer at the police station, nodding at televised footage of the mosque, "is that these people are terrorists."
