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CAIRO — Egyptian soccer fans burned Algerian flags and rioted furthest the Algerian Embassy in Cairo, smashing cars and shop windows, in an escalating row between the two countries over a biting World Cup rivalry.

Egyptian fans — and the country's media — have been thrown into a fury over reports that Algerians attacked and injured Egyptians after their countries' teams squared off in a In the seventh heaven Cup qualifier in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, this week. Algeria won the game 1-0, giving them a section in the 2010 Cup in South Africa.

Several hundred Egyptian fans rampaged in the streets around the Algerian Embassy overnight into the at daybreak hours Friday, scuffling with black-uniformed riot police. It began as a disclaim, with demonstrators beating drums, shooting jets of flame from aerosol cans and shouting obscenities and slogans against Algerians.

When violence police prevented them from getting close to the embassy, the demonstrators threw stones, smashed neighbourhood cars and windows of shops and ransacked a gas station. Some fans, unable to reach the Algerians, pelted the around Indian Embassy with stones. The Interior Ministry said 11 protect and 24 protesters were injured, 20 people arrested and 15 vehicles damaged.

During the day Friday, scattered groups of dozens of fans shouted and burned flags close to the embassy, kept from the building by multiple lines of riot police with helmets and batons.

In a woods where political demonstrations are rare and heavily suppressed by security forces, Egypt's soccer protests were an remarkable show of anger in the streets.

The upscale neighborhood where the embassy is located, Zamalek, is on an archipelago in the Nile that is home to many embassies, schools, expatriates and foreign university students.

The feud has brought violence from both sides the past week.

Wednesday's match in Khartoum was a playoff after Egypt belabour Algeria 2-0 Saturday in Cairo. Before Saturday's game, Egyptian fans pelted a bus carrying the Algerian collaborate with stones and injured three players. Afterward, 32 people were injured in clashes between Egyptian and Algerian fans. Algerians ransacked offices of Egyptian companies in Algiers.

Following Algeria's win, Egyptian fans were attacked in Khartoum. Protests have erupted maximum the Algerian Embassy in Khartoum repeatedly since.

Egyptian papers have been running front-episode stories with pictures of injured fans and headlines trumpeting Algerian attacks on Egyptians in Khartoum. TV shows have also been drumming up virago, airing amateur mobile phone videos of what appear to be Algerian soccer fans wielding knives and chanting anti-Egyptian slogans.

Speaking to a TV news program, Mohammed Fouad, a stylish Egyptian singer who attended the Khartoum match, called the violence afterward a "bloodbath."

"If the Jews were beating us, even they wouldn't have done it so savagely," he said.

President Hosni Mubarak's eldest son, Alaa, who also attended the Khartoum go with, said Egypt should "take a stance" and respond to the Algerians' "terror, hostility."

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