Banjul and surroundings calm

Gambia's capital, Banjul, and surrounding towns remain calm on Tuesday, a day after students and city hoodlums fought pitched battles with police which resulted in several deaths, Police Public Relations Officer Abdoulie Sanyang told IRIN. "People are going about their normal business," he said. However, he said police were patrolling the streets of Serrekunda, a vast semi-residential neighbourhood and the centre of Monday's demonstrations some 12-15 km southwest of Banjul. Thousands of protestors threw stones, attacked public buildings, burnt cars as well as four police stations. Sanyan and other witnesses said the protest only turned violent when hoodlums joined the demonstration. "They (the hoodlums) were the cause of all this. Most looters were definitely not students," a news source told IRIN. "There is visible evidence of selective attacks on places where one would find cash or goods," another news source added. News reports said the students were protesting the recent death of one of their number at the hands of firemen in the town of Brikama, some 30 km south of Banjul, when the Police Intervention Unit used tear gas and guns to break up the demonstration. But the police said they did not know the reasons for the demonstration since the six accused firemen had been arrested and remanded in custody. Red Cross volunteer killed The Acting Secretary-General of the Gambia Red Cross, Andrew Jarjou, told IRIN that police shot Red Cross volunteer Omar Barrow within the premises of the charity. "He was shot in the armpit and was wearing clear Red Cross insignia, and a helmet bearing the Red Cross emblem at the time," Jarjou said. Barrow, who has since died, was a reporter for the privately owned Senegalese radio station Sud FM. He had taken time off to help the Red Cross. The police denied using live bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators - which the Red Cross estimated at 5,000 - but said some people were probably trampled in stampedes or accidentally stoned to death. "They are lying. They used live rounds," one news source told IRIN. "Police removed live rounds from their guns in the Kombo Police Station." Exact number for people killed and injured are not immediately available. News sources put the conservative estimate at between 10 and 12 dead and scores more injured. One source added, however, that bodies were lying outside the morgue of the Royal Victoria Hospital, which holds about 20 corpses. The Red Cross said it evacuated at least 20 wounded students to hospital but its volunteers were initially stopped from doing so by the police. Jarjou said the Red Cross had complained to Inspector General of Police Rex King, the army commander and other security officials about the deaths and initial police obstruction of the Red Cross.