Thousands of angry young people took to the streets of Bangladesh's capital again on Sunday to demand safer streets, facing police firing tear gas and pro-government activists who attacked them with clubs.

Protests have flared repeatedly in Dhaka since two students were killed last week by speeding buses.

The pro-government activists, members of a political youth league, also attacked at least five journalists, including an Associated Press photographer who was briefly hospitalised with a head injury.

Footage of the attack on social media showed him surrounded and beaten by nearly a dozen men in the city's Dhanmondi neighbourhood.

The protests have become a serious embarrassment to the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of a general election due in December.

Her party is blaming the main opposition, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, for using the student anger to create chaos for political gains. Political feuding between the two political leaders has dominated Bangladesh's politics for more than a decade.

Zia's party has formally extended its support to the protesters, but Hasina has also reached out to the demonstrators by pledging to improve road safety.