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At least three people were killed Friday in clashes between security forces and demonstrators staging a protest against President Laurent Gbagbo in western Ivory Coast, hospital sources said.
Medical staff said that demonstrators brought three bodies with gunshot wounds to the hospital complex in the town of Gagnoa. At least one other person was admitted with serious wounds, according to the staff reached by telephone.
A police source confirmed "some dead," but could not say how many.
"The police and gendarmerie forces charged the demonstrators using live ammunition," said Gildas Konan, local coordinator of the youth movement of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, one of the main opposition parties.
The march began early in the morning by demonstrators who were calling for the reinstatement of the Independent Electoral Commission dissolved by Gbagbo on February 12, when he also sacked the government, causing an outcry.
Since the beginning of the week, protests studded with violence have taken place across the west African country, but the demonstration in Gagnoa was the first where deaths were reported.
According to regional authorities, there were between three and five people killed in the clashes, and one hospital source put the death toll at six.
The head of the army, General Philippe Mangou, loyal to Gbagbo, denounced the Ivorian opposition as responsible "for all the despicable acts" taking place across the country.
The opposition for its part late Friday called for Gbagbo to resign.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, a former rebel leader who was kept in his post by Gbagbo, has been given until Saturday to form a new government, amid fears that it will not include the opposition like the last one did.
Gbagbo's dual dissolution of the government and the electoral commission has dealt a blow to the prospect of long-awaited elections, which were due to have been held in early March, and led to the wave of demonstrations.
Polls have already been put off six times in the divided nation and Soro's New Forces (FN) have held the north since a foiled coup bid against Gbagbo in September 2002 led to civil war.
Gbagbo came to power in 2000 and his electoral mandate expired in 2005. He remains in office partly by virtue of peace agreements, including a key accord signed in Ouagadougou in 2007, which provided for presidential elections.
Gagnoa lies in the south of the country, held by forces that remained loyal to Gbagbo, but protests against the president took place in several other towns on Friday.
At Bingerville in the south, near the commercial capital Abidjan, the army fired shots in the air and used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, according to an opposition activist.
"Everything has returned to normal," a police source said.
At Tiebissou in the centre, where a march had already been organised on Thursday, scuffles broke out between demonstrators and the security forces, residents said. A local opposition official said several people had been hurt.
At Tanda in the east, Niakara in the north and Man in the west, anti-Gbagbo protests took place without any violence, according to witnesses.
