BEIRUT — Lebanese riot police battled in the streets of downtown Beirut for a second night Sunday after demonstrators rallied over government corruption and an ongoing trash crisis, violence that wounded at least 44 people and 30 police officers, authorities said.
The violence came hours after Prime Minister Tammam Salam hinted he might step down following violent protests Saturday that injured more than 100 people. The demonstrations, the largest in years to shake tiny Lebanon, seek to upend what protesters see as a corrupt and dysfunctional political system that has no functional Cabinet or parliament, nor a president for more than a year.
Protest organizers said they pulled their supporters out of the area after men they described as political thugs began fighting with police, trying to tear down a barbed wire fence separating the crowds from the Lebanese government building.
Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the capital’s commercial district into the night as police fired in the air to disperse those who remained after officers used tear gas and water cannons against the crowds.
