KATHMANDU, April 3: Thousands of anti-monarchy protesters threw stones and torched cars on Saturday as they shut down Kathmandu in a strike to denounce clashes outside the king's palace that left 205 people hurt.

Maoist rebels fighting to topple the monarchy offered moral support to the estimated 25,000 demonstrators, who marched from across the capital to a central square chanting slogans demanding a return to democracy.

The protesters, a few of them hauling bags full of stones, converged on a park outside Narayanhiti Palace where some of them lobbed rocks at a sea of police, who dispersed them with tear gas, witnesses said.

No injuries were reported, but at the same place the day before baton-wielding police broke up the crowd when demonstrators tried to break down a barbed-wire barricade.-AFP