TAP says the five, university graduates aged 34 to 43, were protesting the results of a recruitment exam with the Education Ministry. They were hospitalized Friday in stable condition after they were rescued by passers-by who saw them trying to hang themselves, according to Saturday’s report.

The men had taken part in a sit-in over the past week in front of a ministry building in the city of Kasserine, in an inland region plagued by high unemployment.

The suicide of a fruit vendor late last year sparked waves of protests nationwide that toppled authoritarian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.