Five people were shot dead by loyalists of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh

Five people were shot dead on Thursday by loyalists of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The martyrs were protesting a power transfer deal that promises him immunity from prosecution.
  
The five were all killed by live rounds, said the medics at a field hospital set up protesters in the capital's Change Square, where they have been camped out since February.
  
Thirty-four others were wounded, the medics added.

An AFP correspondent said the protesters were met by gunfire from armed men in plain clothes whom they deride as Saleh's "thugs", as they marched towards the city centre.

Activists who have spearheaded 10 months of protests against Saleh's rule had called for a mass rally to protest against the promises of immunity granted to him and his family under the agreement with the parliamentary opposition which the veteran president signed in Riyadh on Wednesday.
  
The protesters also chanted slogans against the Common Forum parliamentary opposition bloc led by the Islamist Al-Islah (reform) party.

After the attack, the marchers returned to Change Square as pro- and anti-Saleh gunmen deployed across the capital, sending tensions soaring, residents said.
  
In Yemen's second-largest city Taez, another centre of the protests against Saleh's 33-year rule, "hundreds of thousands" took to the streets on Thursday with similar demands, organizers said.