Three killed as Nepal police fire on protests
Separately, security forces also fired on anti-monarchist protesters in a south-western Nepal town, wounding at least 26, according to the Defence Ministry.
Doctors at Model hospital in Kathmandu said three people had died and more than 40 were in critical condition, mostly with head injuries, after police fired rubber bullets and live rounds at the crowd.
Police stormed the hospital later in the evening and seized the dead bodies.
The clash occurred in the Kalanki neighbourhood on the western edge of Kathmandu, said Kunjan Aryal of INSEC-Nepal, a Kathmandu-based rights group.
"Our volunteers have already picked up several wounded people and there are reports of many more wounded waiting for rescue," said Mr Aryal, whose office is in the neighbourhood.
At the nearly two dozen protests across the capital, the mood ranged from peaceful to violent.
Stretches of the main road that circles Kathmandu were littered with bricks and burning tyres as police battled protesters.
At least one police post was attacked and its windows smashed by bricks.
The violence came as an estimated 30,000 people who had walked in from surrounding villages began marching along the main road into the city centre.
The group at Kalanki was among the largest of several that gathered at entry points to the city to continue mass protests against King Gyanendra's rule that have brought the capital to a standstill this week.
A line of policemen blocking the road into the city first tried to turn the crowd back with tear gas, and then opened fire with rubber bullets and live ammunition, witnesses said.
The Defence Ministry said in a statement that security forces were compelled to open fire on the protesters at Gulariya, 310 miles southwest of Kathmandu, because the situation was getting out of control.
At least 13 policemen were also wounded in the clashes with protesters.
Following the clash, a government announced over state-run television that it was extending an initial curfew until this morning.
Diplomats, journalists and human rights monitors were not issued passes allowing them onto the streets yesterday as they had been in the past.
Police tried to keep media and rights workers away from any protests, escorting some foreign journalists back to their hotels.
THE current Nepal crisis began when King Gyanendra fired the democratic government and seized power in February 2005, saying he needed control to restore political order and end a communist insurgency that has killed nearly 13,000 people in the past decade.
Opposition parties called a general strike on April 6.
The communist rebels are now backing a campaign, launched by a coalition of the country's major political parties, for a return to democracy.
Many fear that breaking the strike would draw reprisals from the guerrillas.
The government has banned protests in the capital but tens of thousands of angry Nepalis have taken to the streets across the country this week to demand a return to democracy.
Demonstrations yesterday and on Wednesday were the largest since protests against Gyanendra's royal dictatorship began.
The opposition coalition has appealed to Nepalis to support the campaign by not paying taxes, customs duties, interest on loans from state banks and payments to government-run utilities.
The royal government has responded harshly, claiming that communist insurgents have infiltrated rallies to instigate violence. Police have beaten, tear gassed and arrested thousands of protesters, and troops have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone breaking a curfew.
Security forces have killed at least 13 people.
Former King Birendra was forced to introduce multi-party democracy in 1990 following a wave of similar protests. The current monarch succeeded to the throne when the crown prince killed most of the royal family in a palace rampage before turning the gun on himself.
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