At least three people were wounded yesterday when Indonesian police fired on protesters demanding that the ruling Golkar party be disqualified from last month's historic parliamentary election, witnesses said.
The protest organisers put the number shot at five and said one was in a critical condition.
Police began firing as protesters from the left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD) tried to break through a cordon outside the main offices of the electoral commission in central Jakarta.
It was the first serious political violence in the Indonesian capital since the poll on June 7th, which went smoothly without the mass bloodshed that many had feared.
Hospital sources said 23 people were admitted with injuries, two with bullet wounds. A witness at one hospital said he had seen a third victim with a bullet wound. Most had been beaten.
But a leading PRD official said five had been shot, giving their names.
"A total of five PRD members suffered shooting injuries. One is in critical condition," Mr Faisol Riza said.
The local police commander said police fired into the air using a combination of blanks and rubber bullets. But a Reuters reporter saw one policeman shooting into the crowd and one man lying motionless with a gunshot wound to the chest.
The chief of central Jakarta police, Lt Col Iman Haryatna, told reporters the incident began when crowds threw stones.
"One of the crowd was waving a stick entwined with barbed wire," he said.
But PRD officials said police had shot directly into the crowd without warning.
"The police started to hit the front line of the demonstrators and, of course, everyone fought back," said Mr Gandi Setiayadi, the PRD's West Java general-secretary.
"Then, without warning of any kind, they started shooting at the demonstrators. There were no vertical shots."
The protesters had gathered to demand the disqualification of Golkar, once the political vehicle of ousted former president, Gen Suharto. They chanted "Revolution! Revolution!" and sang national songs as they waved banners saying "Disqualify Golkar".
Police kept a heavy guard outside the General Election Commission offices after the protesters dispersed.
Later, the head of a Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, Mr Munir, compared the incident with two involving security forces last year, in which students were killed.