Police fired tear gas in Togo's capital, as protesters blocked the entrance to the gendarmerie where an opposition leader was being held for questioning.

Hundreds of Jean-Pierre Fabre supporters mobbed the building's entrance and the surrounding neighborhood on Tuesday. As police pelted them with tear gas, the demonstrators hurled stones.

Fabre lost the 2010 election to current President Faure Gnassingbe, the son of Togo's longtime dictator. Fabre was taken in for questioning in connection with a fire in January in the capital's central market, which devastated property.

Eric Dupuy, the spokesman for Fabre's party, said, "The leader of the National Alliance for Change party has been asked to present himself for interrogation at the headquarters of the national bureau for investigations today at 8 o'clock."