Nepal police firing kills five protesters

Kathmandu: Five demonstrators died Tuesday after being shot by police in Nepal as anger deepened over the country´s draft constitution.

Police shot dead four people from the Madhesi ethnic minority in separate incidents in the south of the country.

Three were killed Tuesday after defying a curfew imposed in the town of Birgunj, 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of Kathmandu.

A fourth died in hospital Tuesday in Birgunj after being hit the day before.

Another man was killed in the nearby town of Kalaiya when officers fired into a crowd trying to set fire to a police station, said national police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam.

Anger has been building for weeks in southern Nepal after lawmakers -- spurred by April´s devastating earthquake to resolve political differences -- struck a breakthrough deal on a new constitution which has angered minority communities.

"Security forces opened fire at the protesters after they forced their way into a restricted area," said Bam, speaking of Tuesday´s clashes in Birgunj.

"Three people were shot dead and at least 20 others including police were injured during the clashes," Bam told AFP.

News of the deaths comes a week after violent clashes in southwestern Nepal in which eight police officers and an 18-month-old boy were killed, prompting the government to deploy troops.

The constitution was meant to cement peace after a 10-year insurgency led by former Maoist rebels ended in 2006, and to draw a line under centuries of inequality.