Protests against growing economic hardship erupted again in Tripoli and spread to other Lebanese cities early on Wednesday with banks set ablaze and violence boiling over into a second night.

Protesters in the northern city of Tripoli set banks on fire and smashed their facades, prompting the army to fire rubber-coated bullets and tear gas. Demonstrators on Tuesday night piled into the main square while on side streets some threw stones at security forces.

At least one person died in the violence.

Protesters in the southern city of Sidon chanting “revolution” hurled petrol bombs at a central bank building and set its exterior on fire before smashing the fronts of banks.

The Prime Minister Hassan Diab urged Lebanese to refrain from violence and said “malicious intentions behind the scenes” were “shaking stability”.