Some 10,000 people have been evacuated to safety at police stations and army barracks following religious reprisal attacks in the southern Nigerian commercial city of Onitsha, police said on Wednesday.

Anambra Po lice Commissioner Moses Anegbode told reporters in the state capital Awka that they have increased the number of policemen drafted to Onitsha from 2,000 to 4,000 to bring the riot under control.

"The situation is under control. We have so far evacuated people from their houses to the police stations and army barracks and they are well protected," he said.

Dozens of people reportedly have been killed on Tuesday as Christians torched religious houses and burned markets in Onitsha in reprisal for Saturday's violence in northern Nigeria over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, in which at least 16 Christians were killed by Muslims.

The police boss described as untrue and misleading, the speculations that the Hausa Muslims had mobilized their members to attack and kill primary and secondary school children at Awada in Onitsha.

"I expect the public at this time to give us useful information on how to control the situation and not to deceive the people with their mobile phones."

Anegbode said his men had been positioned at strategic areas including the Awka market, to forestall looting and killing.

Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Onitsha following Tuesday's reprisal attacks against the Hausa Muslims by Christians.

On Saturday, at least 16 Christians were killed in the northern states of Borno and Katsina in the country's first violent protests over the cartoons. The Christian Association of Nigeria, however, put the death toll at over 50.

Religious clashes between Muslims and Christians are common in the west African country of 130 million people, which are roughly equally divided between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

There has been a wave of protests across the Islamic world over the cartoons first published in September by a Danish paper, which have since been reprinted in Norway and other European countries.
 
(Source: Xinhua)