lining the road, the highway that leads north out of the city towards hammer and elepo. he went on a tour to the city of hamms. we had him on cnn international. the demonstration that happened at the university, the second biggest city in syria. we ve talked a lot about, it s significant that the demonstrations hadn t reached the capital damascus, hadn t reached the second largest city. we saw thousands of students protesting if. if that gets a grip and continues, that could be a big thing as well. as martin was saying the security services are restiarre everyone they can find, between 18 and 45, putting them into soccer stadiums, holding areas to get them off the streets. so glad to have a clear voice
anti-government demonstrators spread to the country s second largest city. a witness tells cnn several hundred people gathered in elepo and were attacked by security forces. cnn s hala garr ranee joins us from egypt. tell us more about the froefts a protests and what demonstrators are demanding. we saw thousands of people stage a sit-in, where we saw security forces fire on demonstrators according to eyewitnesss we ve spoken to. the fact that the protests have spread to a city like alepo is very significant because initially demonstrations started in the south of the country. initially, they wanted reform. right now, we re hearing them chant they want the regime to fall. the president bashir al assad