BAKU, October 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least two people were killed Thursday, October 16, when pitched battles broke out in the oil-rich republic of Azerbaijan between police and opposition supporters protesting a landslide victory by Ilham Aliyev, son of the outgoing president, in the presidential elections.

The poll gave 41-year-old Aliyev, only son of President Heidar Aliyev, a 79.55 percent of the votes, but international observers said the process fell short of international standards while opposition parties refused to recognize the result, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The brother of a 51-year-old man, Hamidaga Zaidov, who was caught up in the violence said he had been "beaten to death," by police, according to an AFP reporter who was shown the victim's corpse in a Baku hospital.

Also, a child aged four or five died in hospital after being run over by an army truck that had been commandeered by demonstrators, private television station Lider reported.

The television said the army truck had been seized near Azadliq Square but there was no immediate independent confirmation of the report.

A crowd of thousands of angry protesters rampaged through the downtown area of the capital, Baku, smashing the windows of shops and government buildings, and attacking several police and army vehicles.

Wielding clubs and bricks, the demonstrators gathered on the city's central Azadliq Square, scene of mass protests in the dying days of Soviet rule but which has been out of bounds to the opposition since.

"We set foot on the square at last, even if it was just for ten minutes," said Azad, an opposition supporter.

Riot police, backed up by army conscripts and special forces, moved in using truncheons, stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Many people caught by police were beaten with truncheons and kicked.

"They're killing them," said one bystander. "They're beating the shit out of them."

Minor clashes, with some demonstrators shooting handguns into the air, continued for hours as protesters regrouped in side streets and threw stones at police.

Water cannon trucks were sent in by the police to disperse the remaining demonstrators.

The strife on Baku's streets will be a worrying development for the international oil majors, including BP and ExxonMobil, who have invested billions of dollars (euros) developing the country's Caspian Sea oil fields.

Azerbaijan's oil makes it of strategic importance to the West, and especially the United States, which wants to use Caspian oil to lessen its dependence for fuel on the Middle East.

The violence broke out moments after an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observer mission said the presidential election was marred by irregularities.

"The country deserved a better election than this one," said mission head Peter Eicher.

"This election was a missed opportunity for a genuinely democratic election process."

Isa Gambar, an opposition leader who was the chief rival in the election, trailed far behind the ruling party's candidate with 12.1 percent of the vote.

But he dismissed the result as a fix.

"We do not intend to reconcile ourselves to the fact that the Aliyev regime has once again stolen our votes," he told a press conference.

"We will fight against that. I am the winner and I do not intend to go along with this theft."

Azerbaijan's president-elect is a former oil executive with little experience of politics.

He was thrust into the limelight when his 80-year-old father, who has been at the helm of the country for three decades, was incapacitated by a heart condition.

Many commentators say he lacks his father's political instincts and authority, and the civil strife greeting his election is expected to be a stern test for the new head of state.

Aliyev has already received congratulatory telegrams from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan.