Six Sudanese protesters were killed yesterday in clashes with security forces on a third day of protests against a cut in fuel subsidies, medics and relatives said.

Protesters torched cars and petrol stations and threw rocks at police, who used teargas to try to disperse the biggest display of public anger against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s government in more than a year.

Internet access was cut off all over Sudan after activists began sharing images of the unrest on social media.

Bashir has so far avoided the mass demonstrations that unseated rulers in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen and led to civil wars in Libya and Syria, but simmering discontent over corruption and inflation appear to have boiled over when prices of gasoline and cooking gas nearly doubled on Monday morning.

The deaths occurred in clashes in different parts of the capital, according to the relatives and medical workers. Numerous plumes of black smoke rose into the skies above Khartoum.

“The people want the fall of the regime!” protesters chanted, “No, no to high prices!”

Mobs set fire to a university building and several petrol stations in Khartoum.

They blocked a main road to the airport near the luxury Rotana hotel, used by diplomats and businessmen, and torched several cars in the car park, witnesses said.