Egypt: “I Literally Felt a Bullet Pass Over my Shoulder”

Egyptian photojournalist Mosa’ab Elshamy was shot at, had a bullet fly over his shoulder, and had his equipment stolen as he ventured into Rabaa Al Adawiya, where a pro-Morsi sit-in was violently dispersed in Cairo, Egypt, yesterday.

He tweets his experience in a series of tweets, which give us a sneak preview of what it was like at the evacuation of the Muslim Brotherhood sit-in in Nasr City.

Getting to the Rabaa sit-in was the easy part:

More black smoke rising from Rabaa. Can be practically seen from almost anywhere in Nasr City pic.twitter.com/jz35WHLQ9o

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

There, he first dealt with teargas:

Finally made it into Rabaa. Tear gas unbearable.

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

The horror he saw, he captured in a gallery of photographs, he shares on flickr. [Warning: Some pictures, particularly of the corpses in the morgue, are graphic]

The scene at Rabaa’s frontline resembles a warzone. Clashes ongoing for six hours now. pic.twitter.com/zVeaKs76GG

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

ElShamy has a close brush with snipers:

Worst part is not knowing where the shooting is coming from. You crouch next to the nearest thing and hope for the best..

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

But he remains put, clicking away, as the clashes intensify:

Rabaa clashes intensifying.. pic.twitter.com/atzf0rm40r

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

A bullet flies over his shoulder. He tweets:

Literally felt a bullet pass over my shoulder. Heard a buzz similar to that of a gigantic mosquito traveling at the speed of light. Eerie.

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

With that, and the pellets of shotgun in his back, Elshamy decides to call it a day:

That, along with the three pellets I sustained in the back, was my cue to leave.

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

But that was not the end of it.

On my way out of Rabaa I was confronted by a resident vigilant mob which stole my equipment. Luckily I had kept the SD card in my socks.

— Mosa’ab Elshamy (@mosaaberizing) August 14, 2013

Don’t miss out ElShamy’s photographs from today’s clashes on his flickr account here. This article originally appeared on Global Voices.