Senegal - Demonstrators hurled stones at the convoy carrying Senegal's aging president to the regional capital of Thies, where he held a campaign rally Wednesday, according to witnesses and a private radio station.

Before the caravan of cars carrying 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade had traveled the 45 miles (70 kilometers) to Thies, at least five of the cars had been vandalized by rock-throwing protesters, according to Sud FM radio.

No injuries were immediately reported, and the limousine carrying Wade was not touched, but the incident further underscores how much the political landscape has shifted in this nation on Africa's western coast since Wade was first elected 12 years ago.

Back then, Wade was able to mobilize tens of thousands of people, who ran after his car, cheering. In Thies, the crowd that came to greet him was only in the thousands.

Before his arrival, security forces fired tear gas to disperse groups of youths demonstrating against Wade's bid to run for a third term in this month's election, said witnesses as well as Alioune Tine, the coordinator of a coalition of opposition parties.

"They prevented us from reaching the national highway," said 38-year-old El Hadj Diouf, one of the protesters who was reached by telephone on the streets of Thies.