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AFP
Madagascar police on Tuesday fired teargas to disperse a crowd of opposition supporters addressed by former president Albert Zafy in the capital city.

Zafy spoke to hundreds gathered in a park in the centre of Antananarivo, in what police described as an illegal gathering.

In his address, the former leader who ruled the Indian Ocean island from 1993 to 1996 criticised the interim government led by Andy Rajoelina.

"We wanted to remind him (Rajoelina) that he has failed in what he himself initiated, that democracy is not a reality," said one of Zafy's allies, Lalatiana Ravololomanana.

Police fired eight teargas grenades into the crowd and one person was wounded in the leg in the rush that followed.

Zafy was "evacuated and is well, but was hit with gas in the face," Ravololomanana told AFP. "For Mister Zafy, the fight continues... we must return to the negotiating table."

Zafy first supported Rajoelina, the former mayor of Antananarivo, who ousted former president Marc Ravalomanana in 2009 in an army-backed coup.

Rajoelina now heads a transitional government meant to steer the vast island nation back to constitutional order and new elections, a process moving in fits and starts.