The Tunisian interior ministry has announced a national curfew in response to protests over unemployment, saying that national security is at stake.
The restrictions beginning on Friday night follow “attacks against public and private property”, it said.
Only night-shift workers and people needing urgent medical care will be exempt from the curfew.
Protests over youth unemployment have spread from the northern region of Kasserine to towns and cities.
More than a third of young people in Tunisia are unemployed, with 62% of graduates without work, according to the OECD.
Unemployment has worsened since the 2011 revolution, when President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.
Tunisia’s uprising was the first of the Arab Spring, and often hailed as the most successful.
But correspondents say the authorities have failed to resolve the problems of social exclusion and poverty, and face a growing jihadist threat.
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‘No magic wand’
The curfew, which will run from 20:00 to 05:00 (19:00 to 04:00 GMT), has been put in place because of the “danger to the security of the state and it citizens”, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Anyone disobeying this decision risked prosecution, it warned.
The authorities called from calm after protests descended into vandalism, looting and violence in several areas.
The demonstrations started on Sunday in the central-western town of Kasserine, after a man was electrocuted while protesting over his rejection for a government job.
In the nearby town of Feriana, a policeman died after his car was overturned on Thursday.
Prime Minister Habib Essid, who cut short a visit to Europe to deal with the protests, has said his government has no “magic wand” with which to tackle unemployment.
In an interview with France 24 (in French) on Friday, Mr Essid said the country was struggling with the difficulties of being a “young democracy”.
“We need people to be patient,” he said
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Source: BBC