Bahrain police early Thursday stormed a demonstrators’ camp in downtown Manama and killed three people, while wounding at least 70, world media reported.

Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in an effort to prevent them from turning the main city square into a protest base such was Tahrir square in Cairo.

Witnesses and representatives of the opposition said that police launched the operation without warning at around 3.00 am (midnight GMT).

They attacked the square where hundreds of people were spending the night in tents, one of the witnesses told the AFP agency.

Interior Ministry spokesperson General Tarek al-Hassan said that the security forces evacuated the square after having exhausted all chance of dialogue.

Some left the place of their own free will, while others refused to submit to the law, which required an intervention to disperse them, he added.

The leader of the main Shiite opposition bloc Wefaq said the assault was an act of terrorism and added that whoever decided to attack the protesters did it with an intention to kill.

Thousands of demonstrators have been occupying the square since Tuesday, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, which led to ousting of those countries’ regimes. In police actions prior to this morning’s intervention two young Shiite demonstrators were killed.

The opposition in Bahrain demands establishing of constitutional monarchy and a right to elect a prime minister.

They also want more working places, better living conditions, releasing of political prisoners and ending the practice of giving Bahrain citizenship to Sunnis from around the region.

Bahrain is ruled by Sunni royal family, although about 70 percent of the Bahrain citizens are Shiites.