I arrive in Egypt on the second day of mass demonstrations, the day of rage.
MAN (Translation): They are firing live rounds - they are using machine guns and everything else. We Egyptians are dying while demanding freedom we want freedom, we dont want thieves.
A small mosque off Tahrir Square has become a makeshift medical clinic. Protesters welcome my camera.
PROTESTER (Translation): Film this - it is the doing of that pimp Mubarak. Give him mouth to mouth stand back guys.
Whats your name? Are you okay? Are you having trouble breathing?
There are wounded everywhere. Many are in shock.
MAN (Translation): Hes not eating or drinking he got shot everyone gets shot. God is watching you, Mubarak and your men! God is watching all of you!
The injuries were caused by rubber bullets, buckshot and teargas as well as live ammunition. At least a hundred have been killed.
MAN: Bullets, made in the United States of America!
The next morning, the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party is a smoking ruin. Police have vanished, leaving the burned out remains of their trucks. There's also news of widespread arson and looting.
TAXI DRIVER (Translation): What upsets me is the countrys on fire.
My taxi driver says police deliberately let prisoners out of jail in order to cause trouble.
TAXI DRIVER (Translation): Theyre the ones who let those thuggish sons of bitches out. T he bastards are doing this to our country. God is watching!
MAN (Translation): Thieves, sons of bitches, the source of corruption. Its their doing.
TAXI DRIVER (Translation): They are infidels. Even worse - they are even worse.
But the main target of this man's anger is Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak.
TAXI DRIVER (Translation): I am against inheriting power, it is not a kingdom. I wish that in my lifetime, before I die, all rule will be based on a constitution and limited to one or two terms, like in America.
CROWD (Translation): The people want to bring down the President!
Hosni Mubarak! Void!
Gamal Mubarak! Void!
The National Party! Void!
With the police gone, thousands of people flock to Tahrir Square, guarded now by just a few tanks. This is the start of what will become a long and costly sit-in.
MAN (Translation): 30 years in silence. Now, not silent again.
The protests are entering a new phase today, with many ordinary people voicing their opinions for the first time.
MAN (Translation): Yeah, OK my conscience was hurting me two days ago. So I have to come. I'm very happy that I'm here amongst these people and I am sure that this army is not against us the army is with the people, not against us.
REPORTER: Why did you come today for the first time?
MAN (Translation): We are not afraid any more. Those people are not afraid.
This, in itself, is extraordinary. On previous visits to Cairo, I found people too frightened to tell me what they really thought. But now, a threshold of fear has been crossed. When people see my camera, they demand to be heard.
MAN (Translation): We dont want despotism but freedom of expression, the government never heard us. We were watched closely, we were scared to speak up.
MAN 2 (Translation): People have lived and died and Mubaraks still in power.
MAN (Translation): we supported each other, all of us have been waiting, we all needed encouragement so we dont get scared. All of Egypt is taking part, we felt alone before now a million or two million are speaking up.
CROWD (Translation): The people want to bring down the President!
REPORTER: Whats happened?
MAN (Translation): Mubarak has gone, hes gone. Mubaraks left.
Suddenly, a rumour sweeps through the crowd. Mubarak has stepped down - they've won. It's a glimpse of how Egyptians would celebrate the overthrow of their President. But the elation lasts for only a minute.
MAN (Translation): Theyre not saying this. Hes still in power.
REPORTER: Tell me, what is actually happening?
MAN (Translation): We will be here until he leaves. Mubarak hasnt left. Hes still in power.
As evening falls, more soldiers arrive, and they get a rock star welcome. The crowd is convinced the army is on its side.
CROWD (Translation): The people and the army are hand in hand!
Searching for a balcony overlooking the square, I find a group of Egyptian film-makers and actors, amazed at what is playing out before them.
AMR WAKED, ACTOR: The people, they want the system to go down. It's cool.
Amr Waked is an Egyptian movie star, taking part in all the recent protests.
AMR WAKED: This is beautiful. This is brilliant.
REPORTER: Did you ever imagine that you would see anything like this in Cairo?
AMR WAKED: I had a feeling for a few years now.
REPORTER: You thought something was building up?
AMR WAKED: Yeah. The system was bound to fail. It was bound to fail. It was very unjust to many, many, many people - huge amounts of people. These are a very small sample of who really needs to change. I've never seen this before - ever. I'm proud.
I'm more ambivalent about the army than the protesters are. The day after the first big rally, shortly after curfew, I'm detained at an army checkpoint near the Pyramids. My translator and I are searched, blindfolded, taken for questioning overnight by military intelligence - the mukhabarat. I decide to move to a hotel closer to the protesters in Tahrir Square, where the curfew is not being enforced.
Four days after they vanished, a few police try returning to the streets. But this crowd will have none of it. Although some are hungry for revenge, others restrain them. Today, the protesters are raising the stakes. They've called for a million demonstrators to gather in Tahrir Square, hoping the sheer weight of numbers will dislodge Mubarak.
The fact that this mass movement exists at all is due to a small group of young activists. One of them is this man, Belal Diab.
BEAL DIAB, ACTIVIST (Translation): O Great Helper! O Great Helper! Go to hell, President!
In 2008, a Dateline story told how Belal's brave stand against the government made headlines around the world.
BEAL DIAB (Translation): When I went to see the Prime Minister I told him Egypt is sad, the flower of Egyptian youth is in detention. We want you to release the detainees of 6 April they are the youth of the internet age.
During a speech by the then Prime Minister at Cairo University, a 20-year-old Belal interrupted and started yelling out in protest. He had a friend film it with a mobile phone, and placed it on YouTube.
Still, Belal expected change to take many years.
BEAL DIAB (Translation): Our generation believes it is like planting a palm tree we might not eat its dates but the next generation will. Change won t happen over night, it will happen in stages nothing comes easily, sacrifices must be made. Someone has to stand up to them.
Today, it looks like Belal's generation might actually enjoy the fruit of its sacrifices after all.
BEAL DIAB (Translation): I feel I havent wasted those five years of my life from the time I was 18 until now at age 23, I feel that future generations will have a better time. They will forge the future we will rebuild. As soon as he departs, everything will be fixed.
Some of the other protesters take exception to what Belal is saying, or the way he says it.
PROTESTER (Translation): Where am I from?
BEAL DIAB (Translation): Where are you from?
PROTESTER (Translation): I have been here since the 25th.
BEAL DIAB (Translation): I have been around for five years.
Belal's activism has cost him dearly, and he resents being challenged by a newcomer.
BEAL DIAB (Translation): For two years they made me fail at uni its not fair, how did I defame Egypt?
CROWD (Translation): We did it together on Facebook. I swear well win we did it and well win.
It's through passionate exchanges like this that a movement without leaders or formal organisation is evolving.
BEAL DIAB (Translation): These are historic days Egypt has not witnessed before, the young men of Facebook be safe, Egypt, I will sacrifice myself for you!
Belal and his friends take me to their local cafe.
BEAL DIAB: These are leaders of Justice and the Freedom Movement.
Activists of every persuasion gather here to discuss current events.
MAN: The signal that was give on the 25th and the 28th and today is very simple - if someone wants to take power and not to leave it, he will not succeed so much, he will not succeed for so long.
MAN 2: We said if the Tunisians did it, why cant we do it and we did it. Other people might say the same thing.
REPORTER: Do you think that there is a danger that you are speaking too soon?
MAN 2: Well, what we did was take a first step. It was a police state. The police are gone now. They're actually releasing them back on the streets, but they're not the same as they used to be before. They're kind of broken. All their might, power and prestige - it's gone.
Just off Tahrir Square we bumped into another activist.
ACTIVIST (Translation): Weve been trying for three years to get the bastard out, but in vain. It happened in a day he doesnt understand enough! He must leave bugger off.
Remember the Gaza march, remember that bastard giving us a hiding in Tahrir Square? Those Interior Ministry officers . I paid back the officer who hit the woman in Tahrir Square . I saw Said Belal, hitting the people I gave him a few good punches.
MAN 2: Remember the day, man? We were only, like, a dozens people protesting, and the police hit us so hard. And there would be bullies. Now we look at this and we go, like, wow!
But things get a lot worse before they get better. The next day, there's a small demonstration in support of Mubarak outside my hotel. It grows bigger in the course of the morning. Then I realise the army has allowed the protesters to march towards Tahrir Square.
Outside, I'm quickly surrounded by the pro-Mubarak protesters.
PRO- MUBARAK PROTESTERS (Translation): Dont film here. Dont film. No.
MAN (Translation): Stop it, everyone have some decency. El-Baradei should be beaten with shoes, he is a son of a bitch.
They don't want me to reach Tahrir Square. Some of the protesters defend me and try to calm things down.
By the time I reach the entrance to the square, the first clashes have broken out between the rival protesters. Trouble-makers on the pro-Mubarak side attacked protesters in the square, and now a hail of stones rains down in retaliation. I retreat with the crowd and try to seek shelter.
PROTESTER (Translation): Infidels, they are infidels. Everyone loves Mubarak, the opposition parties who dont like him attack us with weapons. Help us, President! We love you Hosni!
A hysterical woman clutches my arm and won't let go. One of the protesters tries to get me to safety. But shortly after filming this, I was attacked again. At the makeshift clinic off Tahrir Square, wounded protesters are streaming in.
PROTESTER (Translation): Sufficient unto me is God, Mubarak! God is watching, tyrant! God is watching!
At least 11 people will be killed in these clashes.
PROTESTER (Translation): God is watching you, Mubarak!
Mubarak has shed our blood, we will die here, we wont leave well die here.
That night, I hid in an apartment off Tahrir Square until nightfall, to avoid gangs of pro-Mubarak supporters carrying iron bars and broken bottles. Back in my hotel, I watched as stones and Molotov cocktails are hurled at the democracy activists.
The next morning, the army is on the move. Soldiers attempt to set up a buffer between the two sides. Pro-Mubarak protesters spot me filming and threaten to attack the hotel. Over a hundred journal are attacked and one killed. For this Australian reporter, my week in Cairo ends here.
YALDA HAKIM: Amos Roberts reporting from Cairo. Where he was teargassed and shot at while telling that story as well as being blindfolded during his interrogation by the military authorities there. He then had to be spirited by Australian embassy officials passed 11 checkpoints to the airport after his hotel was surrounded by an angry mob, brandishing weapons and Molotov cocktails. You can hear more about his experiences on our website, where there is an interview with Amos. You will find extra background to the crisis in Egypt.
Reporter/Camera AMOS ROBERTS
Producer ANGUS LLEWELLYN
Editor ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS DAVID POTTS
Translation/Subtitling KHONCHA RAFIK DALIA MATAR JOSEPH ABDO
Original Music composed by VICKI HANSEN
13th February 2011