Conakry - Guinean riot police sealed off the centre of the capital Conakry on Monday as shooting broke out in several neighbourhoods where protesters took to the streets to support a general strike, police and witnesses said.

The protests, on the 13th day of the crippling strike aimed at ousting President Lansana Conte, followed several days of violence which has killed at least eight people in Conakry and towns across the West African country.

Residents said they heard shooting in at least four neighbourhoods of the sprawling city, and in one, Dixinn, protesters were reported to be marching towards the centre. Gunshots were also heard in the city centre itself.

"The marchers have four bloody bodies with them and they say they're heading for the town centre," one Dixinn resident said.

Riot police armed with tear gas launchers and automatic rifles were deployed in central Conakry.

"We have been told people are coming here," said one gendarme, who added police were guarding the 8th of November bridge leading to the city centre.

The latest unrest flared as religious leaders, union chiefs and government representatives struggled to negotiate a solution to the strike which has paralysed the world's No 1 bauxite exporter, disrupting its strategic mining industries.

Strike leaders say President Conte, a reclusive diabetic in his 70s, is unfit to rule and should step aside.

Published on the Web by IOL on 2007-01-22 14:31:22