Grieving families of protesters killed by police during violent protests in Nepal this week gathered in the capital on Thursday, expressing anger at authorities and seeking information about their missing loved ones.

Families held a candlelight vigil outside a hospital morgue in Kathmandu and announced plans to meet with Nepal army officials to seek justice.

Earlier on Thursday, hundreds of people crowded Nepal’s main airport in Kathmandu to get a flight out of the country, as confusion set in over who governs the Himalayan nation after violent protests toppled the country’s government.

The Health Ministry said that 34 people were killed and 1,368 wounded in protests on Monday and Tuesday. They were sparked by a short-lived social media ban and fuelled by broader discontent over corruption and unemployment.

Nepal’s army took control of the capital Tuesday night after two days of huge protests that left the presidential residence and government buildings in flames and forced the prime minister to resign and flee.

The toll of the dead and wounded has been rising as reports on casualties trickled in from other parts of the country.

Protesters said they are demanding state honors for their loved ones and are not interested in monetary compensation.

Bhol Bahadur Bishwokarma was seeking information about his brother, Santosh Bishwokarma, who was killed by police fire.

“We have heard that the body is in the hospital morgue here but no one has confirmed that or in what condition and shape the body is in. We have not even been able to see the body. We demand the government address our concern at the earliest," he said.

In the capital, residents rushed to buy food staples like rice, vegetables and meat early Thursday, when the army briefly lifted a curfew. Armed soldiers were guarding the streets, checking vehicles and offering assistance to those in need.

Many tried to leave the country after the airport reopened late Wednesday and international flights resumed Thursday.

The last day of the key Indra Jatra festival was also shortened by the organizers cancelling the chariot process of the living goddess in the heart of Kathmandu. A few hundred devotees were allowed in the old palace courtyards but the living goddess was not taken out of her palace temple.

It remained unclear who would take control of the government as the search for an interim leader continued.

When the protests prompted Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli to resign Tuesday, the country’s ceremonial President Ram Chandra Poudel asked him to lead a transitional government until a new one could be put in place. But Oli fled from his official residence, and his whereabouts were not clear.

Residents of the capital were left wondering who was in charge.

Protest leaders met with military officials at the army headquarters in Kathmandu on Wednesday to discuss a transitional leader.

Rehan Raj Dangal, a representative of the protesters, said his group proposed to military leaders that Sushila Karki, a popular former chief justice, should head an interim government. Karki was the only woman to serve as chief justice of Nepal’s Supreme Court. Other protesters opposed her appointment.

AP Video shot by Upendra Man Singh