At least two people have been killed in Nepal after protesters demanding the restoration of the abolished monarchy clashed with police.
The violence took place on Friday in the east of the capital Kathmandu, where a rally had been organised by groups loyal to the former King Gyanendra Shah.
The Home Ministry said a protester died while receiving treatment in hospital, while a local TV station said one of its staff died when the building he was filming from was set on fire.
Several protesters and police officers were also injured in the clashes, which have led the government to impose a curfew in parts of the city.
The gathering near the airport had been planned as a peaceful rally, but trouble began when some protesters in a white pickup drove at a police barricade, colliding with several officers.
Police responded by shooting tear gas shells and spraying the crowd with a water canon.
On the other side of the capital, thousands of people who support the present republican system of government gathered for a counter rally.
That group was made up of figures from opposition parties led by the Maoists, a group that fought an armed rebellion from 1996-2006 to oust the monarchy.
"It is impossible for the monarchy to come back. It is ridiculous to even think that something that is already dead and cremated could come back to life," said Ram Kumar Shrestha, a Maoist supporter.
There has been growing demand in recent months for Gyanendra to be reinstated as king and Hinduism to be brought back as a state religion.
Royalist groups accuse the country’s major political parties of failing the Nepalese people.
"We need the country to return to monarchy and the king to come back, because the political parties and system have failed in the country," said Rajendra Bahadur Khati, one of the participants at the pro-monarchy rally. "When the source is so polluted the entire system has gotten rotten."
Massive street protests in 2006 forced Gyanendra to give up his authoritarian rule and two years later parliament voted to abolish the monarchy.
Gyanendra, who left the royal palace to live as commoner, has not commented on the calls for the restoration of the monarchy.
Despite growing support, the former king has little chance of immediately returning to power.
