Tunisian police fire tear gas at protesters demanding jobs
TUNIS -- Tunisian police firing tear gas clashed on Thursday with hundreds of youths who tossed rocks and petrol bombs in protests over jobs and a lack of development in a town in the country's south, residents said.
Six years after their revolt ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's central and southern regions are still flashpoints for rioting in marginalised towns where many young Tunisians see little economic progress since the uprising.
Local residents said police clashed with several hundred young men in the centre of Ben Guerdane, and that protesters lobbed rocks and petrol bombs and set tyres ablaze.
"Police are firing tear gas to try to disperse hundreds of youths who are protesting in the centre of the town demanding work," Fethi Chandoul, a local resident, told Reuters.
