Some protesters forced their way into the parliament complex by breaking through a barricade, a local official said, setting fire to an ambulance, hurling objects at riot police and ferrying the injured to the hospital on motorcycles.

“The police have been firing indiscriminately,” one protester told the ANI news agency. “(They) fired bullets which missed me but hit a friend who was standing behind me. He was hit in the hand.” More than 50 people were injured, Nepal Television said.

There was no official confirmation of the deaths and injuries, and Reuters could not independently verify the figures.

Ekram Giri, a parliamentary spokesperson, said some protesters had entered the premises but not the main building, and had been driven out by police.

Organisers of the protests, which spread to other cities in the Himalayan country, have called them “demonstrations by Gen Z”. They say the protests reflect young people’s widespread frustration with the government and anger over its policies.

“This is the protest by the new generation in Nepal,” another protester told ANI.

A government decision to block access to several social media platforms, including Facebook, last week has fuelled anger among the young. About 90% of Nepal’s 30 million people use the internet.

Officials said they imposed the ban because platforms had failed to register with authorities in a crackdown on misuse, including fake social media accounts used to spread hate speech and fake news, and commit fraud.