Tunisia: Protester shot dead as Tunis rioters battle police

A PROTESTER was shot dead in Tunis yesterday as rioting youths clashed with authorities in the city for the second day.

The violence in the heart of the Tunisian capital has sharply escalated a conflict between protesters angry over unemployment and repression and an authoritarian government that appears more and more willing to use force to put down its greatest challenge in decades.

At least 23 people, possibly dozens more, have now been killed.

Rioters hurled stones at trams and government buildings yesterday. In one clash near the state radio headquarters in central Tunis, police fired on protesters with bullets, two witnesses said.

One protester was hit by a sniper on the balcony of a building overlooking the violence, said witness Hassene Ayadi, who lives in the surrounding La Fayette neighbourhood.

The unprecedented violence has revealed deep anger against autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has clamped down on civil liberties, jailed opponents and kept the media under tight control during 23 years of rule in the Mediterranean tourist haven where unrest has until now been rare.

Unions announced a general strike today in Tunis and some other regions.

Overnight, police fire killed four people who defied a government curfew in several towns, opposition members said, driving up a death toll already in the dozens.

The government's death toll stands at 23, while opposition figures and witnesses say it is more than 50, including the deaths overnight near Tunis and in the northern region of Bizerte. French and Swiss citizens visiting their native country were among those killed, the two European governments said.