Albania’s students took to the streets on Tuesday. By nightfall, the capital was filled with tear gas, water cannon spray and burning barricades.

Hundreds of students, high-schoolers and citizens gathered at 2 p.m. outside the Ministry of Education for a national protest called days earlier. It came after more than four months of nightly demonstrations against the government outside the prime minister’s office.

Their grievances are personal: crumbling dormitories, the cost of higher education, too few jobs after graduation and a steady exodus of young people from the country. Protesters also demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama and the education minister. Organizers have not published a formal list of demands.

“The main reason we are here is that we demand Edi Rama’s resignation, because he is responsible for the mass exodus of young people,” protester Albina Ruko said. “He has given young people no chance to build a life in their own country.”

For about an hour the protest was peaceful. Then protesters threw eggs, red paint and firecrackers at the ministry, tore up paving stones and railings, smashed windows and forced open a door.

Police responded with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber batons and water cannons. Video from the scene showed students dragged along the ground, some with bloodied faces. One young man, bloodied and handcuffed behind a gate after a scuffle with six officers, became the face of the day.

Police said masked protesters attacked officers with Molotov cocktails, stones and firecrackers. They said 23 people were detained and six officers and a journalist were injured. Medical staff said 13 people needed treatment, including two journalists and six officers.

Pushed back from the ministry, the crowd regrouped again and again. Fires burned along Rruga e Durrësit. In the evening, protesters broke the door of Tirana City Hall and entered the building before police moved in and began making arrests. Later, burning bins and smashed traffic lights marked the 9-katëshet junction and Rruga e Dibrës. After more than eight hours, crowds were still on the streets.

Interior Minister Ervin Demo condemned the violence against police. “Striking a police officer is not an exercise of the right to protest,” he said. He later voiced concern for every person injured, including students and journalists, and reportedly ordered the detained students released and a halt to the use of tear gas.

Deputy Prime Minister Koçiu called the unrest “orchestrated violence” and said young people were being used to cover up political failure. Rama was in Luxembourg that day, meeting the country’s prime minister.

The opposition Democratic Party accused the government of repression and said Rama, the education minister and the interior minister must answer for violence against students. The Socialist Party’s parliamentary leader, Taulant Balla, blamed opposition leader Sali Berisha.

Albania’s Ombudsman has opened an investigation into whether the police use of force was necessary and proportionate.

Students say they are not leaving. “We will stay in the protest until the police pull back,” student Anjeza Marku said. “For more than 130 days the government’s resignation has been demanded, and no proper answer has come. Change in Albania can only be made by young people.”