2,000 rally demanding Algerian President’s resignation

Surrounded by hundreds of police and anti-riot forces, some carrying automatic weapons in addition to clubs and shields, the demonstrators waved a large banner reading “Regime, Out” and chanted slogans borrowed from the protests in Tunis and Cairo.

A planned march from May 1 Square was prevented by thousands of police who were deployed before the demonstration began.

The demonstrators included both the head of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), Said Sadi, and Ali Belhadj, former leader of the now-banned Islamist Salvation Front. A group of police surrounded Sadi, preventing him from using a loudhailer to address the crowd.

By the afternoon, only some 150 young protestors were left.

But Fodil Boumala, one of the founders of the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD), said "We've broken the wall of fear, this is only a beginning […] the Algerians have won back their capital."

Authorities said 14 people had been held and then released. Those arrested included two RCD deputies, Othmane Maazouz and Feta Sadad, as well as Boumala of the CNCD.