By BBC
There are at least eight bodies and many others injured in one of the main hospitals in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, a contact within the hospital has told the BBC.
Security forces opened fire on protesters on Monday morning, but the military authorities have denied they were trying to disperse the demonstrators outside the military headquarters.
"Sudanese forces did not disperse the sit-in outside the army headquarters by force, but rather targeted a nearby area which has become a threat to the safety of citizens," TMC spokesman Lt Gen Shams al-Din Kabbashi told UAE-based Sky News Arabia TV channel.
Lt Gen Kabbashi said that security forces had moved towards Colombia, a neighbourhood located near the main protest site, which he said "has long been a hotbed of corruption and negative practices that contradict the conduct of the Sudanese people".
"The area has become a major security threat to our citizens... and it also affects the safety of protesters in the sit-in area," he added. Lt Gen Kabbashi said the TMC had informed the opposition Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change (FDFC) about the move.
"We did not disperse the sit-in by force. The tents are still there and the youth are moving there freely," he said, stating that many protesters "preferred to leave the sit-in".
