Libyan security forces have killed 84 people have been killed in three days of protests against Colonel Gaddafi, according to a leading human rights group.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) cited witnesses and hospital sources as saying it is the worst unrest faced by Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power.
Protests against Gaddafi's rule, inspired by uprisings in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, have been met with force.
The news came amid other reports that Libyan special forces had stormed a two-day-old protest encampment in the city of Benghazi on Saturday morning.
At 5am, special forces attacked hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and judges, camped out in front of a courthouse in the city, said witnesses.
They fired tear gas on protesters in tents and cleared the areas after many fled carrying the dead and the injured.
One protester said: "This is a ghost city - we are all afraid that something big is going to happen in Benghazi today."
Wounded demonstrator stretchered into hospital. Photo from Quryna Newspaper, Benghazi
An injured protestor stretchered into a Benghazi hospital
Internet access had also been cut around 2am in Benghazi, removing one of the few ways Libyans can get out information about the anti-government protests in the country.
There were further reports that Facebook and Twitter had also been shut down in the capital of Tripoli, while the city was said to be full of government supporters.
Further restrictions on foreign media have also made it difficult to establish the full extent of the violence.
HRW said 35 people died on Friday alone.
Most of the protest focused in the restive region around Benghazi, 600 miles east of Tripoli.
According Alex Rosi, Sky News' correpsondent in Cairo, the situation in Libya is "extremely volatile".
Describing very strong scenes of unrest in Benghazi, he said: "At least 35 people... had been taken to the morgue. Most of those people shot with live ammunition."
In the capital, Tripoli, he said the unrest appears to be more "muted, but there is unrest".
He added that although it was a "very volatile situation, it does appear to be calmer in the capital".
L-Libya-protests
Leaked footage from Libya shows increasingly violent protests
HRW said the deaths in the city happened when security forces opened fire on people protesting after funeral processions for people killed in earlier violence.
There has been no official word on the number of dead.
"We put out a call to all the doctors in Benghazi to come to the hospital and for everyone to give blood because I've never seen anything like this before," the group quoted a senior hospital official in Benghazi as saying.
"Special forces who have a very strong allegiance to Colonel Gaddafi are still fighting desperately gain to control, to gain ground and the people are fighting them street by street," a local resident was reported as saying.
While the level of unrest has not previously been seen before in the oil exporter, Libya-watchers say the situation is different from Egypt, because Mr Gaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems.
Mr Gaddafi is also respected in much of the country, though less so in the Cyrenaica region around Benghazi.
:: Arbor Networks, a US-based security company, has said that internet traffic in the North African country abruptly ended late on Friday night.
:: Libyan authorities have also thwarted foreign journalists attempting to enter the country by refusing entrance visas.
Source : http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Human-Rights-Watch-85-Killed-In-Three-Days-Of-Protests-As-Libyan-Demonstrations-Spread/Article/201102315936808?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15936808_Human_Rights_Watch%3A_85_Killed_In_Three_Days_Of_Protests_As_Libyan_Demonstrations_Spread
