Lebanese protesters blocked major highways with burning tires and roadblocks on Wednesday, saying they will remain in the streets despite the president's appeal for them to go home.

Schools and universities were closed and banks remained shuttered — a reflection of the deepening political and financial crisis the tiny country faces. A man was killed by a Lebanese soldier during Tuesday night protests, marking the first such fatality since nationwide demonstrations engulfed the country on Oct. 17.

The French envoy in Beirut delivered a message to President Michel Aoun from his French counterpart expressing France’s willingness to help Lebanon, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Lebanese army troops on Wednesday deployed heavily near the Presidential Palace in Baabda amid tight security measures, after a night of unrest following President Michel Aoun’s announcement that there could be further delays before a new government is formed.

“Army troops deployed in masses in Baabda in case of any emergency,” said the National News Agency.

A man was shot dead in Khalde south of Beirut, Lebanon's state news agency said early Wednesday.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday said that he might call for parliamentary consultations to name a new premier on Thursday or Friday if the parties concerned respond positively to the proposals, as he warned protesters against continued blocking of roads and state institutions.

“The consultations might be held Thursday or Friday pending the answers of the parties concerned and if they don’t respond, we’ll have to postpone for a few more days,” Aoun said in a TV interview broadcast on all local channels.

Protesters led by the leftist Youth Movement for Change rallied Tuesday evening outside the French embassy in Beirut to denounce what they called French “interference” in Lebanese affairs, hours after a top French envoy arrived in Beirut.

The envoy, Christophe Farnaud, is scheduled to meet with top Lebanese officials over the ongoing political and economic crisis in the country.

Lebanon's banking association said Tuesday that banks will stay closed on Wednesday due to a strike by employees as the country's financial crisis worsens.

Banks were supposed to open on Tuesday following a three-day closure, but employees have gone on strike, complaining of aggressive behavior by customers.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Tuesday that the Lebanese should decide what they want instead of “waiting for solutions from abroad which might never come.”

Urging officials to “put aside their personal and partisan interests and put the public interest ahead of anything else,” al-Rahi also called on them to “liberate themselves from the regional and international tug of war.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and his wife Randa Assi Berri on Tuesday lifted bank secrecy off their accounts inside and outside Lebanon, state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said Berri and his spouse signed memos lifting their bank secrecy during a meeting with the notary public Shadi Rammal.

The director of the Middle East and North Africa department at the French foreign ministry, Christophe Farnaud, arrived Tuesday afternoon in Lebanon for talks with top officials.

Earlier in the day, several prominent civil society groups such as Beirut Madinati and the Legal Agenda said they had declined invitations to hold meetings with Farnaud, who has apparently sought to explore the stances of the protest movement.