Doctors in Sudan say 14 people have been shot dead by security forces as thousands took to the streets to protest against the recent military takeover.

Activists had called for mass demonstrations to mark the day when a civilian was supposed to assume the leadership of the governing Sovereign Council.

The man who led last month’s coup, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, dismissed the government, arrested dozens of politicians and named himself the head of a new Sovereign Council.

There is growing evidence of just how brutal the Sudanese security forces have been.

Doctors in the capital Khartoum say tear gas has been fired inside hospital buildings and soldiers have prevented some of the wounded from being treated.

Many arrests have taken place in neighbourhoods where the electricity had been switched off.

General Burhan and his colleagues who seized power are determined to stop anti military protests from gaining any momentum.

They are also undoing much of the progress that had been achieved after Omar al-Bashir was toppled.

His allies are taking back some power and returning the country to the kind of dictatorship that the vast majority of Sudanese hoped had been dismantled forever.