Lebanon: Protesters clash with police over Beirut blast

Beirut, Lebanon: Lebanese riot police clashed with demonstrators in Beirut on Saturday, August 8 during a protest over this week's devastating explosion in the city.

About 7,000 people gathered in Martyrs' Square in the city centre, some throwing objects at the police, who fired tear gas when some protesters tried to break through a barrier blocking a street leading to parliament, a Reuters journalist said. Tuesday's blast, the biggest in Beirut's history, killed 158 people and wounded 6,000, the health ministry said. Twenty-one people were still reported as missing from the explosion which destroyed a large swathe of the city.

The government has promised to hold those responsible for the explosion to account but few Lebanese are convinced and some set up nooses on wooden frames as a grim warning to their leaders.

Some residents, struggling to clean up shattered homes, complain the government they see as corrupt has let them down again. Before the explosion there had been months of protests against the government's handling of a deep economic crisis.