Report: Mubarak has left Cairo

And the lid has been popped off of Pandora’s Box.

Egyptian state television reported that President Hosni Mubarak and his wife left the presidential palace in an affluent Cairo suburb Friday, as hundreds of thousands of citizens across the country gathered to demand his ouster.

The televised announcement said a statement would be coming from the presidential palace shortly. It did not say where Mubarak was headed, but the Associated Press, citing a local official, reported that he had gone to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.