LIBYA: Videos show violent and chaotic scenes at protests- activists call for “Day of Rage”

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Videos are trickling in from the anti-government protests that were ramping up to a ‘Day of Rage’ Thursday in Libya. Demonstrations a day earlier reportedly resulted in the death of at least one person and more than a dozen injuries when security forces clashed with protesters.

The amateur footage above claims to show a fire truck menacing demonstrators in the city of Benghazi in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

According to US-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW), 14 people were arrested ahead of the planned protests Thursday and media reports said hundreds of supporters of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi had taken to the streets of the Libyan capital in a bid to counteract activist calls for an anti-government rally. The Libyan opposition site ‘Enough Ghaddafi’ appears to have been hacked and is currently inaccessible.

Below, more amateur video footage purportedly shows a demonstration outside a police station in Libya on Tuesday. As crowds appear to try to approach the station, shots are fired and tumult break out.

Following protests in Benghazi, anti-government demonstrations are also said to have erupted in Libya’s third largest city, Baida. Below, a video which claims to show a protest there on Wednesday depict people in the streets chanting the Egypt and Tunisia-inspired slogan ‘The people want the fall of the regime’ in Arabic. Black smoke is seen billowing to the sky from a distance. The footage could not be independently confirmed. --Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Video credit: YouTube