Armenia was under a state of emergency today after eight people died in clashes between riot police and demonstrators protesting that its presidential election had been rigged.

Troops and tanks patrolled the capital Yerevan in a crackdown ordered by President Robert Kocharyan following a night of violence that left scores injured, stores looted and streets littered with burnt-out cars.

The foreign ministry said that seven civilians and one police officer had been killed. Another 33 police were hurt, including 17 with gunshot wounds.

There were an unknown number of casualties among demonstrators in the former Soviet republic. They had massed in huge numbers on the streets near foreign embassies after police broke up a protest camp in Yerevan's central Liberty Square early on Saturday morning.

The square had been the focus of 11 days of peaceful protests against the election of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan as President. Supporters of opposition leader Levon Ter Petrosyan insist that he won the vote and that the authorities engaged in massive fraud to hand victory to Mr Sargsyan, the President's close ally.

Violence erupted as hundreds of riot police moved in to try to clear the streets late on Saturday and protestors, who had erected barricades earlier in the day, retaliated with sticks and stones.

Police fired tear gas and live rounds into the air above the crowd of up to 15,000 after petrol bombs were thrown. Demonstrators finally abandoned the streets after an appeal for calm was read out from Mr Ter Petrosyan, who was independent Armenia's first president from 1991 to 1998.

Mr Ter Petrosyan said that he had been placed under house arrest. The Government denied this and claimed that security forces were protecting him as a former head of state.

An uneasy calm held in Yerevan on Sunday as a dozen armoured personnel carriers and about 100 soldiers guarded the main government building and foreign ministry. Several tanks were stationed at the scene of the clashes.

Mr Kocharyan imposed the state of emergency until March 20 in response to what he called a threat to constitutional order. Demonstrations, strikes and public gatherings are banned, while media in Armenia may only publish information provided by the government.

Political parties are barred from distributing "leaflets or other means of political propaganda". Police have also been given sweeping powers to restrict people's movements and to stop and search vehicles.

Prosecutors said that at least 55 people had been detained during the violence. Mr Ter Petrosyan's spokesman, Arman Musinyan, accused police of planting weapons near demonstrators in the square as a pretext for Saturday's clampdown.

The violence was the worst crisis in the Caucasus republic of 3.2 million since a massacre in parliament in October 1999, when extreme nationalists shot dead Armenia's prime minister and seven other senior politicians.

Official results of the election on February 19 gave Mr Sargsyan 52.9 per cent, just above the 50 per cent required to avoid a run-off against his nearest opponent Mr Ter Petrosyan, who had 21.5 per cent.

Mr Ter Petrosyan claims that he won two-thirds of the vote. Europe's main election watchdog described the vote as "mostly" in line with international standards, but said that counting had been bad or very bad in 16 per cent of polling stations.

The current chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Finland's Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, condemned the use of force against demonstrators. He announced that a special envoy would go to Armenia to encourage the two sides to negotiate a solution to the crisis.

The Vatican's second most senior figure, Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, postponed a visit to Armenia on Sunday after the state of emergency was declared.

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