Egyptian protesters ransack Cairo museum, smash mummies

The mass anti-government protests in Egypt took a toll on Cairo’s Egyptian Museum that houses the world's largest collection of Pharaoh-era antiquities, when protesters shattered heads of two mummies and damaged about ten small artifacts on Saturday, museum officials said in media reports.

Though the Egyptian Museum is now safe and under military guard, a torched ruling party headquarters building next door to the museum was still a bigger threat to the treasures inside museum, Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief said.

What scares me is that if this building is destroyed, it will fall over the museum, he was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

Egyptian Museum attracts millions of visitors and tourists every year, according to official figures. A home to the gold mask of King Tutankhamun, the museum is also an attraction for over Egypt’s 4,000 years of history, mummies and houses thousands of artifacts. Archaeologists are afraid that any damage to the museum would be a great loss of art.

Fearing repetition of such acts, Egypt’s military has deployed armed forces and troops to other major archaeological sites and museums in the country, including the Pyramids of Giza and the temple city of Luxor.