AKIPRESS.COM - Thousands of people gathered across Algeria on Friday to protest President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's plans to run for a fifth term, BBC reports.

Security forces in riot gear fired tear gas to block a march on to the presidential palace in the capital, Algiers. But protests in the rest of country passed off peacefully.

The Algerian premier has held office since 1999, but has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.

The authorities announced on Thursday that the president, who turns 82 next week, will travel to Switzerland on Sunday for medical checks.