Bahrain protests: Police break up Pearl Square crowd

Hundreds of riot police using tear gas and batons moved into the square before dawn on Thursday.

At least two people died in the police operation, according to the opposition, while 100 sustained injuries.

The protesters are calling for wide-ranging political reforms and had been camped out since Tuesday.

Clashes earlier in the week left two dead and dozens injured in the country.

The unrest comes amid a wave of protests that has swept through several Arab nations, with the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt forced to resign.

Tear gas

Ibrahim Sharif, of the secular Waad party, told the BBC that the police had acted without any warning at about 0300 (2400 GMT).

"Throughout the day there were rumours that we would have another 24 hours, but the attack has come without warning.

"You have hundreds of women and children already camping there. People are sleeping in the tents [...] there is a dense fog of tear gas, these people could be trapped there and inhaling this tear gas," he said.

He said that he had seen at least 100 riot police on one side of the square and hundreds of people running away from the square down the side roads.

"We have two confirmed dead - one 65-year-old and another younger person, a third is in critical condition," he said, adding that ambulances with injured people were arriving almost every minute at Manama's main hospital, Salmaniya.

Some children, he said, had become separated from their parents as police stormed the square.

The Agence France-Presse news agency quoted an opposition MP as saying that two more protesters had died from their wounds but this has not been independently confirmed; Kazinform cites BBC News.

See www.bbc.co.uk for full version