Chile’s Congress has been evacuated after protestors tried to force their way on to the building’s grounds, in a new challenge to a government struggling to contain deadly unrest over economic hardship.

Police fired teargas on Friday to fend off hundreds of demonstrators on the perimeter as some lawmakers and administrative staff hurried out of the legislative building, which is in the port city of Valparaíso.

In the capital Santiago, as many as a million Chileans protested in the biggest demonstrations yet since violence broke out a week ago over entrenched inequality in the South American nation.

Demonstrators waving national flags, blowing whistles and horns, wafting incense and bearing placards urging political and social change streamed through the streets, walking for miles from around Santiago to converge on Plaza Italia.

The scenes were replicated in cities around the country. Traffic already hobbled by truck and taxi drivers, adding their own protest over road tolls, ground to a standstill in Santiago, as roads were closed and public transport shut down early ahead of marches that built throughout the afternoon.

Santiago governor Karla Rubilar said almost a million people marched in the capital - more than five percent of the country’s population.

The demonstrations were a sign that economic concessions by President Sebastián Piñera have failed to ease public anger.

At least 19 people have died in the turmoil that has swept Chile. The unrest began as a protest over a 4-cent increase in subway fares and soon morphed into a larger movement over growing inequality in one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries.

The lack of leaders and a list of clear demands in the protest movement show the shortcomings of Chile’s unpopular, discredited political parties, said Marta Lagos, head of Latinobarometro, a non-profit survey group in Chile.

“There is a failure of the system of political parties in its ability to represent society,” Lagos said.

She said she expected protesters to become more organized, and that it was unlikely that Piñera, who took office last year, would resign. The protests, Lagos said, are bigger than any that occurred during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet decades ago or under democratic governments that followed.

Piñera served an earlier term as president, from 2010 to 2014.

On Friday, hundreds of trucks drove slowly on a main highway that skirts Santiago, where stone-throwing protesters have fought riot police for more than a week. Some Chileans in cars and motorcycles joined the protest, held to demand an end to private highway tolls.

Most car drivers pay between $35 and $130 a month to use highways around Santiago, depending on how much time they spend on the roads. Truckers pay much more because of the long distances that they travel.

Many Chileans earn between $560 and $760 a month, making it hard to pay for basic needs, let alone drive on the highways.

There will be no further highway toll fee increases this year under Chilean law, transport minister Rafael Moreno said.

Operators of some subway lines in Santiago also stopped service, further disrupting a transport network affected by burning and vandalism of stations in some parts of the city.

About 40% of Santiago’s metro was functioning on Friday, though several thousand buses have been deployed in an attempt to make up for the disruption.

Struggling to contain the strife, Piñera’s administration announced increases in the minimum wage and the lowest state pensions, rolled back the subway fare increase and put a 9.2% increase in electricity prices on hold until the end of next year.

Flanked by elderly Chileans, Piñera on Friday signed a measure that would raise minimum pensions of $150 by 20%, an increase that would benefit an estimated 600,000 people.

Most of the demonstrations over the high cost of medicine, water and other basic needs have been peaceful. But instances of arson, looting and alleged brutality by security forces have shocked many in a nation known for relative stability.

According to Chile’s human rights watchdog, more than 2,000 people have been detained and over 500 injured.

The government has declared a state of emergency and imposed curfews in 12 out of Chile’s 16 regions.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, now the United Nations’ top official on human rights, will send a three-member team to Chile to examine allegations of violations.