SANAA (Reuters) – Tanks took up positions around Yemen”s presidential palace and government buildings on Thursday on a second day of rioting after a sharp rise in fuel prices, witnesses said.

One person was killed and four were reported wounded on Thursday as security forces and protesters clashed. Thirteen people were killed in protests on Wednesday.

Thursday was the first time tanks have been seen in the capital Sanaa since the rioting broke out a day earlier.

Protests on Thursday swept three districts of the capital, Sanaa, as well as the western and southern provinces of Houdeida and Ta”iz.

The sounds of gunshots could be heard in some areas where the casualties occurred, the sources said.

Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Bagammal called for calm on Wednesday, saying people &#34must differentiate between freedom of expression and freedom of destruction&#34.

Yemen, which announced the cuts on Tuesday, said they were in line with high global oil prices and were part of reforms launched in 1995 and backed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, to help prevent an economic collapse.

The government also said on Tuesday it would offset the increase by cutting custom tariffs, raising state salaries and reducing a planned general sales tax to 5 from 10 percent.

But as soon as the increase went into effect on Wednesday, thousands of angry protesters took to the streets of Yemeni cities, destroying government offices, throwing stones at security forces and blocking roads by setting tyres on fire.

The clashes were the heaviest death toll in Yemen protests since 1998, when 34 people died in two weeks of demonstrations and violent clashes over price hikes.