Night curfew was imposed yesterday in Nepal's capital Kathmandu and police were issued shoot-on-sight orders after rioting broke out when a new king was enthroned in the Himalayan kingdom following the massacre of the king and queen.
Armed police used tear gas and batons to contain angry mobs surging towards the royal palace demanding to know how King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and at least seven close relatives, including their two children, were killed in a shooting spree at a palace dinner party last Friday night.
In his first nationwide address on state-run radio King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, younger brother of King Birendra, said a three-member inquiry into the killings headed by Nepal's chief justice had been instituted. It would submit its report in three days.
Officials first blamed Crown Prince Dipendra - who died of a bullet wound yesterday, two days after succeeding his father as king - for his family's massacre following a dispute over his choice of bride.
Earlier in the morning King Gyanendra was declared king at a ceremony held amid tight security at the Monkey Gate palace, the ruling seat of his ancient Shah dynasty.
The Raj Purohit or royal priest placed a gold crown with a long plume of white feathers on King Gyanendra's head as he sat on a raised gold throne adorned with the carved head of a cobra, the king's protector. After the ceremony, escorted by the royal household cavalry and bodyguard, King Gyanendra rode the king's gold-gilded chariot to the sprawling royal palace that will be his home.
Armed soldiers and riot police lined his route. Thousands of protesters held him and his son Prince Paras responsible for murdering King Birendra and family. Prince Paras and his mother Princess Komal, who were at last Friday's dinner, were reportedly injured in the shooting.
Meanwhile, Dipendra, king for two days though he never knew it, was cremated last evening in a lonely funeral as the curfew ensured that no mourners, except a handful of officials, attended.
His cortege, accompanied by a royal guard of honour, wound its circuitous way through eerily empty streets from the military hospital where Dipendra had lain after reportedly shooting himself. It was a stark contrast to the seething and wailing crowds that lined the streets when his parents' funeral procession followed the same route on Saturday. Bare-chested Brahmin priests dressed in white sarongs carried his bier to the royal enclosure at the Pashupathi Nath temple on the banks of the Baghmathi river.
