Police fire tear gas as clashes continue in Beirut

Lebanese security forces fired tear gas and clashed with anti-government protesters in Beirut on Friday, setting off street confrontations that lasted for hours.

Protesters threw stones and fireworks at police, and security forces responded with tear gas in an effort to disperse crowd. But number of protesters continued to grow into late hours of Friday.

Despite efforts to control currency depreciation, Lebanese pound sold for more than 6,000 to dollar on Thursday on black market, down from 4,000 in recent days.

Leban’s prime minister held an emergency Cabinet meeting on Friday, hours after demonstrators shut roads across country with burning tires in renewed nationwide protests spurred by a plunging national currency and ecomic crisis.

government and its central bank promised to inject fresh dollars into market to control fast deteriorating exchange rate that saw local currency lose nearly 70% of its value in weeks.

pound had maintained a fixed rate of 1,500 to dollar for nearly 30 years. specific amount was given for planned injection.

But promise was met with skepticism from a public that has lost trust in officials y blame for country’s unparalleled financial and ecomic crisis.

dollar short, coupled with already negative ecomic growth, has crunched Leban's middle class and increased poverty in small Mediterranean nation dependent on imports of basic goods.

Lebanese have for years used dollar and Lebanese pound interchangeably. So with drop, employees saw ir income and savings lose over 60% in value in weeks.

Leban's President Michel Aoun blamed currency plunge this week on "political manipulation," intentionally aimed to create chaos to undermine government he is allied with.