POLICE clashed violently with protesters during a massive ethnic Berber-led march in Algiers on Thursday which left two journalists dead and 168 people injured and fuelled anger against the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the protest, which some observers said was the biggest in recent history. Some put the turnout at more than a million people. The protesters accused the government of abusing power and using oppressive tactics in the Berber homeland of Kabylie — where dozens were killed in a police crackdown on riots in April and May. At the height of Thursday’s unrest, an AFP correspondent saw police firing live bullets on protesters in the port area, where some had begun looting warehouses. But Algeria’s interior ministry denied police had unleashed gunfire, and said authorities had tried to remain calm despite the rioting and looting. “We avoided the worst, we did everything to limit damage,” the interior ministry’s secretary general Mohamed Guendil announced on television. Guendil confirmed that two Algerian journalists died during the protest. The official said Fadila Nedjma, a reporter with the daily Chourouk el Youmi, and Adel Zerrouk, a reporter with the Oran-based newspaper Errai died of chest trauma. Nedjma, a woman, was run over by a bus and Zerrouk was killed in a crowd scuffle, he said. – AFP