Mobs burnt cars and looted shops and private homes in the southeastern Nigerian city of Uyo today as a general strike over fuel prices entered its second week, residents said.
The violence flared in the world's eighth largest oil exporter just days before a visit by US President George W. Bush.
"There are violent disturbances in town," a resident said by telephone from the city, which is in Nigeria's oil-producing southeast region. "Vehicles have been set ablaze, private homes and businesses are being attacked."
A traveller from Uyo who managed to reach the nearby town of Calabar at the extreme end of Nigeria's southeastern coastline said: "The people (mobs) are not organised and the police don't seem to be able to contain the situation."
Uyo was the second city to be hit by the violence. In the commercial city of Lagos, police shot dead at least 10 protesters today, Nigeria's top union official said.
The strike was triggered when President Olusegun Obasanjo announced an increase of more than 50 per cent in petrol prices last month on the grounds that it was essential for Nigeria's economy to reduce subsidies on imported refined fuel.
Nigeria's own refineries cannot meet domestic demand so the OPEC state has to import to meet the shortfall.