Two people were killed and dozens injured yesterday when Georgian riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a five-day rally against President Mikheil Saakashvili’s pro-Western rule.

Police fired rubber bullets and water cannon to beat back hundreds of people who had gathered in front of a grandstand from which Mr Saakashvili later watched a showpiece military parade marking Georgia’s independence from Russia.

The government said 37 people had been hospitalised and 90 others detained for two months.

Russia said the night-time police raid showed Mr Saakashvili “cannot be trusted”.

Mr Saakashvili said the two people killed had been run over by a motorcade belonging to one of the opposition leaders and accused those who rose against him of working on behalf of the “occupation” forces of the Kremlin.“These provocations are being prepared from outside the country,” Mr Saakashvili told the nation in a television appearance.

“We will be vigilant and we will always respond adequately to any provocation from our enemy and occupier,” he said.

Russia seized two Georgian republics at the end of a five-day war in August 2008 and continues to impose an economic blockade on its tiny Caucasus neighbour – a country with few resources or other natural trading partners.