The ongoing butane cylinder crisis escalated to clashes involving firearms in Ismailia and a boycott of elections in Assiut on Tuesday.

In response to the crisis, the Ministry of Petroleum announced it is considering delivering cylinders to people’s homes to circumvent the black market, while a planned coupon-based distribution system was put on hold.

In Ismailia, a man was referred to the prosecution on charges of shooting another man in a queue outside a butane cylinder depot.

In Assiut, protestors demonstrated in a school housing four polling stations and raised banners saying “No butane, no bread, no People’s or Shura Councils.”

Meanwhile, in Alexandria, hundreds of workers at the Mosahamet al-Behera Company, a firm working in land reclamation projects, blocked the Cairo-Alexandria railway and started an open-ended sit-in to demand the payment of salaries that have been withheld for two months. The workers also demanded that the company be returned to the public sector.

In Sharqiya, protestors threw stones at the office of governor, Azzazi Ali Azzazi, demanding his resignation over increases in bus fares.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm