An armed group opposed to Haiti's embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have taken over the poor Caribbean nation's fourth-largest city, burning down the mayor's home and releasing scores of prisoners.
The gunmen, who used to belong to a pro-Aristide gang, attacked the police station in Gonaives on Thursday and said they intended to move on from the northern city and "liberate" others, including Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city.
The Red Cross said seven people were killed in the shootout that took place during Thursday's attack on the police post, one of the bloodiest confrontations in escalating tensions between the government of the poorest country in the Americas and its opponents.
The Haitian National Police officers fled.
Government spokesman Mario Dupuy said the authorities intended to re-establish order in Gonaives, 105 miles (170 km) from the capital Port-au-Prince.
But journalists said an attempt by police on Friday to re-enter Gonaives -- the city where Haiti declared independence from France and freedom from slavery in 1804 -- met with gunfire and their helicopter had to retreat.
"These guys have heavy weapons, weapons that even the police don't have," said Guy Delva, secretary general of the Association of Haitian Journalists.
Witnesses said the group had freed scores of prisoners from a prison in the same compound as the police station, and torched the home and warehouse of pro-Aristide Mayor Stephen Moise. Looters then stripped the remains of the police station and a fire station bare, and set fire to gasoline stations.
"No one would prevent them from doing it. They can do what they want," Delva said.
Rebel leader Buter Metayer said his group, calling itself the Artibonite Resistance Front, would only hand in their weapons if Aristide stepped down.
"We tell the national and international community clearly that once President Aristide departs, we will commit ourselves to handing over our guns," Metayer told Reuters Television.
The gunmen once belonged to the Cannibal Army, which had supported Aristide but turned against him when its leader, Amiot Metayer, was killed in September. Buter Metayer accused Aristide of being behind his brother's murder.
Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest now serving his second term as president, has come under increasing pressure to resign. Opposition groups accuse him of corruption and human rights violations.
Aristide was elected Haiti's first democratic leader in 1990 but was ousted in a coup within months. He was restored to power in 1994 after a U.S.-led invasion and won a second five-year term in 2000.