Clashes between Lebanese security forces and protesters resulted in dozens of injuries in a night of violence that shook the center of the capital Beirut on Saturday.

Security forces fired tear gas and water cannons as they chased protesters armed with tree branches and traffic signs in a commercial neighborhood near the parliament building.

The demonstrators filled the streets again during the past few days, after a lull in the peaceful protests that spread across the country in October due to economic conditions. The protesters say the political elite has pushed the country toward the worst economic crisis in decades.

Police beatings and arrests have raised human rights groups' concerns about the prospects for action to crush the opposition.

Smoke of tear gas canisters surrounded the protesters, as ambulances rushed through the capital's streets. Witnesses said that the security forces also fired rubber bullets.

The Lebanese Red Cross said that over a hundred had received treatment for injuries, while at least 65 had been hospitalized on both sides.

A security source said that at least 15 protesters were arrested.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun asked army and security leaders to restore calm in central Beirut. The Lebanese Presidential Office said that Aoun “called them to maintain the security of peaceful demonstrators and public and private property and restore calm to central Beirut.”

The unrest forced Saad Hariri to resign as prime minister in October. The rival politicians have since failed to agree to form a new government or come up with a plan to save the country's economy.

"The scene of confrontations, fires and acts of sabotage in the center of Beirut is a crazy, suspicious and rejected scene that threatens civil peace and threatens the most serious consequences," Hariri said on Twitter Saturday evening. Beirut will not be an arena for mercenaries and deliberate policies to attack the peacefulness of popular movements. ”

On Saturday, the Internal Security Forces said, "There is a direct and violent exposure to riot police at one of the entrances to the House of Representatives." We therefore call on peaceful demonstrators to stay away from the place of the riots in order to preserve their safety. ”

"After the warnings that we sent through the media to leave the peaceful demonstrators, the people who riot will be arrested and arrested, and they will be brought to justice," the Internal Security Forces added in a tweet on Twitter.

Young men chanting "revolution" threw stones and metal barriers at the police, as well as flowerpots, as protesters tried to storm one of the entrances of a heavily fortified and guarded area in central Beirut that houses the parliament building.

Lebanese Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan said it was unacceptable that protesters attack security forces.

She said in a tweet on Saturday, “More than once I pledged that I would protect peaceful demonstrations, and I always stressed the right to demonstrate. However, these demonstrations turn into a blatant attack on members of the security forces and public and private property, as it is condemned and totally unacceptable. ”

Firefighters dealt with fires that broke out in a protest camp in central Beirut on Saturday evening and sent clouds of smoke from the burning of tents.

It was not clear what caused the fire. The Internal Security Forces denied media reports that some of its members had burned the camp, where activists had held discussions and held sit-ins in recent months.

Hundreds of protesters participated in rallies and chanted slogans against the political class in other areas of the capital.

Anger also escalated over banks, which limited customers ’access to their savings, and protesters smashed bank interfaces and ATMs on Tuesday night.

The Lebanese pound lost about half its value, while the dollar shortage led to a rise in prices and the collapse of confidence in the banking system.