KATHMANDU: Nepali youth protesters set parliament ablaze on Tuesday as the veteran prime minister obeyed furious crowds to quit, after one of the deadliest crackdowns in years, in which at least 19 people were killed.
Protesters flooded the streets of Kathmandu, some jubilant and celebrating, others setting fire to government buildings and brandishing automatic rifles.
The rapid descent into chaos shocked many, and Nepal's military warned against "activities that could lead the country into unrest and instability" in the Himalayan nation of 30 million people.
Protests began on Monday with demands that the government lift a ban on social media and tackle corruption, with police trying to crush the rallies - including using live ammunition, according to Amnesty International.
On Tuesday, despite the government rolling back its order and the apps returning online, protests reignited, spreading from the capital to multiple cities nationwide.
"The Nepal government has fallen, the youth have won the protest," said key protest figure Sudan Gurung, in a post on newly-restored Instagram. "The future is ours."
Gangs on Tuesday attacked and set fire to K P Sharma Oli's house, the 73-year-old, four-time prime minister and leader of the Communist Party. His whereabouts are not known.
Plumes of smoke also covered Nepal's parliament as demonstrators breached the fence and "torched the main building," Ekram Giri, spokesman for the Parliament Secretariat, said.
President Ramchandra Paudel, whose offices were also set on fire by mobs, pleaded for calm.
"I appeal to all parties to exercise restraint, to not allow further damage," Paudel said in a statement.
It did not seem to be heeded.
Protesters, mostly young men, were seen waving the country's national flag as they dodged water cannons.
The International Crisis Group called it a "major inflection point in the country's uneasy experience with democratic rule". SEE ALSO P7
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