Nepal imposed a fresh curfew on the capital Kathmandu today to quell street violence as attention turned to the survivors of a bloodbath which wiped out most of the royal family.
State radio said the condition of the wife and sister of newly crowned King Gyanendra, both of them wounded in Friday's massacre, was gradually improving.
They were among four survivors of an unexplained shootout at the royal palace which killed King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and other family members. The crown prince was also fatally wounded, making his uncle Gyanendra heir to the throne.
King Gyanendra, out of town at the time, ordered an inquiry yesterday in an attempt to appease his shocked subjects clamouring to know what happened.
But it was not clear whether the inquiry would be allowed to question the surviving witnesses, or whether their royal status would give them immunity.
King Gyanendra's pledge to have the inquiry completed within three days looked difficult to fulfill after the main opposition Unified Marxist Leninist Party (UML) turned down his invitation to join the investigating panel.
Residents refuse to believe an initial official explanation that Crown Prince Dipendra - proclaimed king on Saturday despite being in a coma - had killed his parents and shot himself after a family row over his choice of bride.
Having first blamed Prince Dipendra, they later said the deaths were caused by an accidental explosion of an automatic weapon, a explanation described as implausible by ballistics experts.
Dipendra's death yesterday, followed by the hasty crowning of King Gyanendra, led to an explosion of rage in which two died as police fought to stop a mob surging towards the palace.
An overnight curfew imposed to quell the riots yesterday was lifted at dawn and then quickly reimposed at noon after fresh violence broke out.
King Gyanendra now faces a struggle to restore the role of the monarchy as a pillar of stability in the country of 22 million people, racked by political infighting and Maoist insurgency.