Unrest engulfed Tunisia yesterday after a popular rebellion forced the president to flee. Dozens of inmates were killed in a prison fire, looters emptied shops and torched the main train station and gunfire echoed through the capital.
Power changed hands for the second time in 24 hours in this North African country after Tunisan President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on Friday for Saudi Arabia.
Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi stepped in briefly with a vague assumption of power that left open the possibility that Ben Ali could return.
However, Constitutional Council President Fethi Abdennadher declared that Ben Ali had permanently vacated his position, not temporally, negating the prime minister’s move to assume power.
Fouad Mebazaa, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, temporarily took the highest office. He has two months to organize new elections.
Anger over corruption and the lack of jobs ignited a month of protests, but Ben Ali’s departure — a key demand of demonstrators — has not calmed the unrest. While the protests were mostly peaceful, after Ben Ali’s departure, rioters burned the main train station in Tunis and looted shops.
A fire in a prison in the Mediterranean coastal resort of Monastir killed 42 people, coroner Tarek Mghirbi said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
Sporadic gunfire was heard in the capital, Tunis. Smoke billowed over a giant supermarket outside the capital as looters torched and emptied it. The army fired warning shots to scare them away, to little avail.
An Associated Press photographer saw soldiers intervene to try to stop looters from sacking the huge supermarket in the Ariana area, 30km north of the capital. Shops near the main bazaar were also looted.
A helicopter circled low over the capital, apparently acting as a spotter for fires or pillaging.
Public television station TV7 broadcast phone calls from residents of working-class neighborhoods on the capital’s outskirts, describing attacks against their homes by knife-wielding assailants.
Thousands of tourists were evacuated from the Mediterranean nation known for its sandy beaches, desert landscapes and ancient ruins.
Saudi King Abdullah’s palace confirmed yesterday that the ousted president and his family had landed in Saudi Arabia, saying the kingdom welcomed him with a wish for “peace and security to return to the people of Tunisia.”
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