Ouagadougou - Police arrested 75 young people in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou following a rampage to protest new plans for the city's sprawling central marketplace, officials said on Monday.

Thousands of stallkeepers on Friday broke traffic lights, blocked traffic with towering pyres of burning tires and continued an unofficial strike that kept shops and stalls shuttered in the normally-bustling marketplace since Thursday.

"Most of those arrested were rabble-rousers, along with five organisers of the shopkeepers' union," all of whom signed an ultimatum sent last Thursday to the government demanding that their concerns be addressed, police chief Sambare Palguim told reporters.

The rampage on Friday followed a union-organised meeting a day earlier to discuss concerns related to the fate of the famous Rood-Wooko market, which was razed to the ground in a devastating fire last May.

Stallkeepers fear that once it is rebuilt, the marketplace will be turned over to commercial interests - particularly the Lebanese traders who control vast mercantile empires across West Africa, with landlocked Burkina Faso no exception.

The meeting, though peaceful, was dispersed almost immediately by police clad in riot gear who lobbed tear gas canisters into the busy commercial district.

Several dozen people were injured in the two days of disturbances, medical sources said, with a few people reporting having been shot by police. Palgium said two police officers were also wounded.

The leading opposition Union for Democracy and Development party (UNDD) said on Sunday that one of its firebrand activists, Nama Louis, had also been arrested for his suspected involvement in the rampage.

Most of the debris that ensued from the rioting had been cleared away by Monday, and shopkeepers were out in full force, plying their wares after four days of inactivity. - Sapa-AFP