You're reading: Police in Belarus use tear gas to disperse protest

Police in Belarus are using tear gas to break up an anti-government protest and forcefully detaining dozens of demonstrators.

The authoritarian government had blocked access to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites and deployed thousands of police in an attempt to prevent the protest Sunday evening.

But about 700 or 800 activists gathered anyway on a central square in Minsk, the capital. Using a new tactic introduced by the activists this summer, they do not hold signs or chant, but instead clap their hands in unison to show their opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko.

The government is faced with swelling public discontent as Belarus suffers its worst financial crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union.