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This grainy film shows the chilling moment an Egyptian soldier on a rooftop takes aim - the last image the photographer saw before he died.

One of the most disturbing pictures to emerge from Egypt in recent days reveals how a marksman trained his gun on photographer Ahmed Assem before apparently shooting him dead.

Brave Ahmed was among 51 people who died in a violent clash outside the Egyptian Army’s Republican Guard’s Officer’s Club, in Cairo, where toppled ex-President Mohamed Morsi was believed to be being held.

The 26-year-old local photographer had been covering a demonstration outside the complex on Monday where pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters were kneeling to pray at dawn.

As the shooting began it is thought Ahmed - who worked for Egypt’s Al-Horia Wa Al-Adala newspaper - focused on troops shooting protesters - more than 400 of whom were injured.

In the hours after the full death toll started merging among those calling for an investigation into the suspected atrocity was British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

One of Ahmed’s colleagues Ahmed Abu Zeid was working a mile away when he heard the horrific news.

He says: “At around 6am a man came into the media centre with a camera covered in blood and told us a colleague had been injured.

“An hour later I received news that Ahmed had been shot by a sniper in the forehead while taking pictures on top of buildings around the incident.

“Ahmed’s camera was the only one which filmed the entire incident from the first moment.

“He had started filming from the beginning of the prayers so he captured the beginnings and in the video you can see tens of victims.

“Ahmed’s camera will remain a piece of evidence in the violations that have been committed.”

(Image: Facebook)

Ahmed’s film footage has begun to be circulated among the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo and the film - 20 minutes long - is being touted as evidence of a massacre.

The pro-Morsi supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were demonstrating against his being held against his will, although there are conflicting versions of how the shooting began.

Witnesses claim the troops within the complex opened fire first but the military says pro-Morsi gunmen opened fire from the rooftop of a mosque first, killing five soldiers.

Today Egypt’s prosecutor general ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader and other Islamists for allegedly instigating violence.

Warrants have been issued for the general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, as well as his deputy and strongman, Mahmoud Ezzat.

Eight other leading Islamists also were ordered to be taken into custody.

The Muslim Brotherhood has also refused to join an interim cabinet to replace Morsi, spurning an offer from the new prime minister to help shepherd the country through a transition period.

PM Hazem el-Beblawi is in talks to form a cabinet that will guide the split country through the next six months.

A Brotherhood spokesman said the group will not take part and dismissed talk of national reconciliation.

The group has denounced the toppling of Mr Morsi as a coup against democracy, and has vowed to continue its street protests until the deposed president is returned to power.