Algeria: Hundreds of police protest outside presidential palace

In unprecedented public protests by police in Algeria, nearly 1,000 officers have been staging a sit-in outside the presidential palace.

Demanding the national police chief step down, they also want better working conditions, salaries doubled and easier access to social housing.

Security forces rarely take to the streets in the North African state.

But on Tuesday police marched through Algiers in solidarity with colleagues injured in clashes between Arabs and Berbers that left two people dead near the southern city of Ghardaia.

Algeria’s police are also still battling remnants of an al Qaeda-linked insurgency and, after the Arab Spring uprisings in neighbouring countries, they are under huge pressure to contain any social unrest.