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Police in Haiti exchange gunfire with troops near national palace

Sunday's clash is a dangerous escalation of protests over police pay and working conditions.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — (AP) — Haitian police officers have exchanged gunfire for hours with soldiers of the newly reconstituted army outside the national palace. 

Sunday's clash is a dangerous escalation of protests over police pay and working conditions.

Police officers tell The Associated Press that at least three of their colleagues were wounded. The army's high command says a soldier was wounded in the back. 

Intense shooting continued until after 6 p.m., when it devolved into sporadic exchanges of fire. 

Recent demonstrations by police are not directly linked to anti-corruption protests that roiled Haiti for most of last year, but they draw on the same widespread dissatisfaction with life in the hemisphere's poorest country.  

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Credit: AP
An armed police officer runs as soldiers fire in his direction during a protest over police pay and working conditions for the national police, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. Off-duty police officers and their supporters exchanged fire for nearly two hours with members of the newly reconstituted Haitian army in front of the national palace. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

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