Sanaa:
More than 100 people were injured and one was killed in Yemen on Sunday as police and government supporters attacked protesters in the capital Sanaa, a day after security forces killed at least seven demonstrators in protests around the country.
The protesters were camping near Sanaa University, calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, when they were attacked by officers and government supporters.
Police on rooftops fired live bullets and teargas.
The day's violence, which left one dead in a southern province, was the latest evidence that monthlong protests demanding the resignation of Yemen's longtime leader were spiralling out of control.
Saleh has resorted to increasingly violent tactics to try and put down the burgeoning uprising against his 32-year rule, deploying dozens of armed supporters on the streets in an attempt to intimidate protesters.
Wielding clubs and knives, police and regime supporters described by protesters as government sponsored thugs attacked activists camped out near Sanaa university, said Mohammed al-Abahi, a doctor in charge of a makeshift hospital near the university.
Among the 100 wounded Sunday in Sanaa, more than 20 suffered gas inhalation, and one was in critical condition after being struck with a bullet, the doctor said.
In the main square and in surrounding streets, eyewitnesses spoke of people being beaten up, threatened and gone missing.
The escalating violence came a day after security forces killed seven demonstrators in protests around the country.
In the city of Dar Saad in the southern province of Aden, medical officials said one protester was shot dead and three others wounded as police tried to disperse a demonstration.
Earlier in the day, protesters torched three police cars and blocked roads to try to stop security troops from
bringing in reinforcements.
Unfazed by the violent tactics, young activists camped out in the square near the university continued to expand the area of their sit-in and threatened to march on the presidential palace about three miles (five kilometres) away.
Rock throwing battles between protesters and security troops broke out on the edges of the encampment.
They said the authorities were trying to draw the protesters into a cycle of violence to further justify a crackdown.
Protesters continued to pour into the main square Sunday, but many said they were stopped by thugs wielding iron rods, sticks, knives and machetes.
In the Aden province, demonstrators also stormed a police station, seizing weapons after the police fled, witnesses said.
In Taiz province, clashes between demonstrators and police left at least four wounded, witnesses said.
Yemen has been hit by constant protests since mid-February. Even before that, the country's government was weak and struggling to confront one of the world's most active al-Qaida branches, a secessionist rebellion in the south and a Shiite uprising in the north.
The protests are part of a wave of unrest sweeping the region. Yemen's demonstrators are calling for Saleh to step down, a demand he has repeatedly rejected while also trying to assuage opposition groups.
Saleh has said he would not seek another term in office in 2013, and offered to form a national unity government with opposition figures. These overtures have failed to satisfy the protesters.
On Sunday, Saleh sacked a close relative from a senior military post. The relative later announced his support for the protests.