"The police started hitting everyone from every side," said a medical professional who declined to be named. "People had only one way to run, which was towards this hospital. There was one girl, she was a paramedic, carrying a baby and they hit her; I saw that."
Riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets stormed a public square occupied by antigovernment protests early Thursday in Bahrain, driving out demonstrators and killing at least two people, witnesses and hospital officials said, in a drastic turn in the protests swelling across the Arabian Peninsula and the broader Middle East.
Security forces in Manama, the capital of the tiny island kingdom, sealed off every entrance to Pearl Square, then entered the camp from four directions at about 3 a.m., firing tear gas indiscriminately, trampling tents and ripping banners, witnesses said. After police regained control of the square, they continued to chase protesters through side streets.
At Salmanyah Hospital, hundreds of angry protesters gathered at the emergency wing, forming a cordon through which the injured were wheeled on trolleys and chanting "death to the al-Khalifa," in reference to the royal family, but the protesters also chanted "peaceful, peaceful" in English, in an apparent sign that they would not respond violently.
Friends and relatives of the injured filed in and out of Salmanyah Hospital's critical room, many wailing or slumping against the hospital walls. Others showed photos on camera phones they said were taken in the square, with some photos showing tanks, suggesting the military had joined the crackdown. Many other wounded were being taken to Ibn Al-Nafees Hospital, a private hospital a few miles away.
Witnesses said police in Pearl Square first attempted to shoot tear gas at the protest from a turnpike overlooking the west of the square, but wind blew the gas back at them. More forces then attacked from the eastern side, first bombarding the encampment with tear gas, then storming it from all sides, the witnesses said.
