Police chief slapped woman, triggers crowd violence

TUNIS, Tunisia — Police fired at an angry crowd of 1,000 attacking the police station in the northwestern town of Kef on Saturday, killing two people and injuring 17 others, the Interior Ministry said.

The official Tunisian news agency said the crowd had turned on police after the police chief "abused" a member of the community. A local journalist said the police chief slapped a woman during a demonstration, triggering the violence between police and citizens.

The journalist said that two other people died on the way to the hospital, but that information could not be officially confirmed. The journalist, reached by telephone, asked not to be identified for professional reasons.

Regional prefect Mohamed Najib Tlijali, calling for calm on a local radio station, said that the police official was himself hospitalized but under arrest.

The clash pitting police against citizens appeared to be among the most serious since this small North African country began a process of moving out of a 23-year-long dictatorship with the flight into exile of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 14 following a month of demonstrations.

A statement by the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, said that some 1,000 citizens threw stones and small firebombs at the police station in a surge of anger after the "abuse" by the police chief. The crowd burned two cars, one a police vehicle, a ministry statement said.

ORIGINAL SOURCE