SUDANESE President Omar al-Bashir ordered a probe into demonstrations demanding his resignation today hours after police again attacked peaceful demonstrators in the capital.

Thousands marched on New Year’s Eve through Khartoum chanting: “The people want to bring down the regime” and “Sudan, we sacrifice our lives and blood for you.”

The march, the latest in weeks of massive protests against rising prices and Mr Bashir’s tyrannical rule, was called by trade unions. It was attacked by police, including reportedly with live ammunition.

Activists said three people had been killed as a ring of steel surrounded the presidential palace and snipers targeted people from rooftops. It would bring the number slain since the protests began to 40, according to the opposition. The government acknowledges 19 deaths.

Video from the demo shows protesters pointing to a sniper on a roof and shouting: “Sniper, we can see you.” Other footage shows pools of blood outside a shop, bleeding demonstrators being carried away and people coughing and retching after a tear gas bombardment while a woman’s voice urges: “Don’t run.”

Human Rights Watch called on Sudanese authorities to order troops not to use lethal force, saying Mr Bashir’s public speeches appeared to justify violence rather than discourage it.

The president gave a new year address in which he sought to assuage public anger by promising wage rises, maintaining state subsidies on essential goods and no new taxes, although the speech did not pledge anything specific.

But Sudan’s Professional Association called on the public to keep up “your heroic revolution which has made the regime quake and quiver under consecutive blows of mighty hands and voices.”

It praised medical associations and unions representing agricultural workers, scientists, dentists and pharmacists for “engaging in political strikes,” demanding that “Bashir and his despotic regime abscond power immediately.”

The Sudanese Communist Party saluted the scale of Monday’s protests and said independence day, which falls on New Year’s Day, would resound to “the eternal glory of the martyrs of freedom and democracy.”

It condemned police for firing at protesters and the mass arrests of activists, saying over 500 were now in prison. It said scores of detained students faced torture and possible death.