DOZENS of LGBT people are said to have been detained in crackdown after rainbow flags were waved at Cairo rock concert.

So far 57 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have been detained, according to a Cairo-based rights group, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

The current spike in arrests is part of an ongoing climate of repression against the LGBT people in the country, where government repression, including online surveillance, entrapment and abuse in detention is common.

The crackdown followed a concert by the Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila on September 22, where concertgoers raised rainbow flags in support of lead singer, Hamed Sinno, one of the very few openly gay performers in the Middle East.

The band said in a statement: “The [Egyptian] state apparatus is hellbent on executing the most atrocious of human rights violations.”

In the days after the concert, seven people were arrested accused of “promoting sexual deviancy”. One man was immediately given a six-year prison sentence. Six were forced to undergo anal examinations, according to Amnesty International.

LGBT rights groups say this latest wave of arrests is part of a long campaign that began after Abdel Fatah al-Sisi became president in 2013, and estimate that more than 300 people had been arrested.