SCORES of Patriotic Front (PF) cadres were yesterday arrested after they fought running battles with police outside the Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC) and other areas in Lusaka.

The situation remained volatile as police officers in riot gear had a tough time to comb the affected areas.

At Mulungushi, bus loads of cadres continued trooping in to beef up their colleagues as the number of cops was reinforced too.

For several hours the cadres were peaceful but they inconvenienced other road users as they blocked the Great East road, forcing motorists to re-route.

When the situation became almost uncontrollable, a team of police officers in riot gear led by Lusaka Province commanding officer, Wasakaza Nguni, was almost always on the scene as violent acts sporadically broke out.

Mr Ng'uni tried to appeal to the unruly cadres to behave but they could not heed his calls forcing him to direct his officers to swing into action.

Police officers started firing teargas canisters at the unruly cadres forcing them to scamper to various places including Arcade's shopping mall and Kalingalinga but several of them were cornered.

At least 20 cadres were picked up from the MICC while scores others were picked up from Garden and Chipata townships including Kaunda Square.

In the evening, confusion continued to reign as PF cadres continued fighting running battles with the police in several areas of Lusaka.

In Chipata township, the irate cadres blocked and lit big fires on some routes while some of the colleagues tried to loot nearby shops save for the heavy presence of police officers that fired shots in the air to stop the protests.

Other areas where there was trouble included Garden, Bauleni as well as Kaunda Square.

Several cadres were locked up by the police but the exact figure could not be known as police spokesperson, Bonny Kapeso, was reportedly attending a series of meetings as at last evening.

And a Reuters correspondent in Zambia, Shapi Shacinda, has reported to police a case in which on Saturday night he allegedly survived an assassination attempt when he was going to MICC for election results.

Mr Shacinda said the incident occurred around 21:55 hours.

This was after his car was hit by suspected assassins when he drove on Los Angels Boulevard.

Police confirmed receiving the report and were investigating the matter.