Egypt protests draw biggest crowd yet

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian anti-government demonstrators gather at Cairo's Tahrir Square on Feb 8, 2011. -- PHOTO: AFP

CAIRO - HUNDREDS of thousands of demonstrators flooded Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and towns across Egypt on Tuesday, in the biggest show of defiance towards President Hosni Mubarak since the revolt began.

In Cairo, the immense crowd hailed as a hero a charismatic cyberactivist and Google executive whose Facebook site helped kickstart the protests on January 25 and who was released after being detained and blindfolded for 12 days.

AFP journalists overlooking the square confirmed it was the biggest gathering yet in a movement which began last month. Witnesses in Egypt's second city Alexandria said a march there also attracted record numbers.

Many protesters carried the symbols of the Internet social networks Facebook and Twitter, which have become vital mobilising tools for the opposition, thanks to online campaigners like the Google executive, Wael Ghonim.

'I like to call it the Facebook Revolution, but after seeing the people right now, I would say this is the Egyptian people's revolution. It's amazing,' Ghonim said, after he was mobbed by adoring supporters in the crowd.

'Egyptians deserve a better life. Today one of those dreams has actually come true, which is actually putting all of us together and as one hand believing in something,' he said. -- AFP