A man died of his wounds Thursday in Lebanon after clashes between security forces and protesters angered by the combined impact of a severe economic crisis and a coronavirus lockdown.
Omar Tayba sustained a bullet wound late Wednesday when protests in the northern city of Tripoli turned violent for the third night running, his brother Ahmad told AFP.
-My brother was in Tripoli watching the protests when he was hit- he said. -He was transferred to hospital and died this morning. -
The 29-year-old man, who was employed in a bakery, became the first fatality -- reported also by local media -- of the protests that erupted earlier this week in Tripoli.
According to the National News Agency, a total of 226 people received treatment Wednesday night.
Tripoli was already one of Lebanon's poorest areas before the coronavirus pandemic piled new misery onto a chronic economic crisis.
Many of its residents have been left without an income since Lebanon imposed a full lockdown earlier this month in a bid to stem a surge in Covid-19 cases and prevent its hospitals from being overwhelmed.
A round-the-clock curfew is in force nationwide and grocery shopping is restricted to home deliveries -- a service that is often unavailable in poorer areas.
Authorities have extended the lockdown by two weeks to February 8.