Demonstrators in the Amhara region defied the threat of a security clampdown on Friday and Saturday as they spilled onto the streets of several towns. Thousands have demonstrated, opposing the killings of innocent people at Timket festival in Woldia and calling for an end to police beatings, with protests reported in Habru districts of Mersa, Robit, Gobiye, all of the towns crossed by the main all weather road from Addis Ababa to Mekele. In Mersa around 10 people were shot dead today, according to the town residents cited by Deutsch Welle Amharic service. Three of them were killed by Habru Woreda Justice Bureau head, who also injured three others, before being fatally shot himself in an ambush, the radio cited multiple sources. Thousands of security officials and defence force members were deployed to break up the protests. Mersa is a town known for its Saturday market located at 490 kilo meters North of Addis Ababa.In a another nearby town, Robit a person is reported to have been killed. Roughly 200 people have been arrested in Kobo town, according to other reports. Protesters attacked police stations, stoned government vehicles and offices and torched enterprises.