Police use tear gas to disperse protest in Beirut

Lebanese riot police fired tear gas on a group of protesters on Sunday as they tried to storm the house of the designated Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Protesters gathered on the streets of Beirut a day after the killing of 28 people due to a warehouse explosion where fuel was illegally being stored.

The explosion came as Lebanon faces a severe fuel shortage that has been blamed on smuggling, hoarding and the cash-strapped government's inability to secure deliveries of imported fuel.

The shortages have paralyzed the country long dependent on private generators to light up their homes.

Most of those generators have now turned off their engines because of the crippling diesel shortages.

The American University Medical Center on Saturday warned it may be forced to shut down in less than 48 hours due to fuel shortages, which would threaten the lives of its critically ill patients.

Lebanon has for decades suffered electricity cuts, partly because of widespread corruption and mismanagement in the small Mediterranean nation with a population of 6 million, which includes 1 million Syrian refugees.