Story highlights Lebanese army units were deployed Sunday in central Beirut, an army spokesman said

Violent clashes over the weekend in Beirut sent 49 to the hospital, Red Cross says

Uncollected garbage was tipping point for increasingly frustrated populace

Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) Lebanese army units were deployed Sunday in central Beirut following violent street protests over garbage going uncollected, said Col. Joseph Moussalem, spokesman for the Lebanese Security Forces.

Red Cross Lebanon said 49 protesters and police officers were injured in Sunday's protests in the Lebanese capital. Lebanese Red Cross spokesman George Kettaneh said 10% of the injuries were serious.

Moussalem said 31 Lebanese policemen had been injured, one of them critically, by rocks and firecrackers hurled by protesters. He acknowledged that a civilian had been critically injured, although the circumstances were unclear.

Long-simmering weariness over government dysfunction reached a boiling point in Lebanon over the weekend when violent clashes erupted because of garbage going uncollected in the streets of Beirut.

Several thousand took to the increasingly putrid streets of Riad El Solh Square in central Beirut, where a cacophonous scene of explosions, tear gas, flaming garbage and cannon-fired water unfolded Saturday and Sunday.

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