A 14-year-old boy has died and an unknown number of people were detained after police cracked down on a street protest in Sudan’s capital Khartoum. The citizens were protesting on Sunday against water cuts.

The boy, whose name has not been disclosed, died after choking on “heavy tear gas.” More than 100 citizens of southern Khartoum neighborhoods of Mayu, Ais Sessen, and El Haseri participated in the demonstration against ongoing water shortages in the city.

Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that the demonstration took place in the neighbourhoods’ main road. Police moved in, fired “heavy tear gas” to disperse them. They beat the demonstrators with sticks and arrested several.

“The boy who died was not part of the demonstration,” a source said. “He was sitting inside his home, but the teargas was so dense, it penetrated the surrounding buildings.”

In a statement of Sunday evening, Khartoum police confirmed that they acted “to disperse a popular demonstration in south Khartoum.”

The statement confirms that “a number of citizens gathered in south Khartoum to protest the cutting of the water supply. The demonstration blocked the main road in the area. The police were ordered to intervene and disperse the gathering in order to re-open the road.”

It confirms that some citizens were detained, and once person died. “The person died in the hospital after choking on teargas.”

File photo: Ba’ath Party members raising a banner reading “No to power except people’s power” at an earlier protest against water cuts in Khartoum, 5 May 2014 (source Radio Dabanga)