(AFP) – Tunisian police on Wednesday fired tear gas at protesters trying to storm their headquarters in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, birthplace of the 2011 revolution, after the murder of a prominent opposition figure.

Some 200 protesters attacked the police station and policemen fired tear gas in response, an AFP correspondent said.

The army then intervened to calm the crowd in this marginalised town in central Tunisia that has suffered ongoing unrest since the mass uprising that ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.