Ethiopian riot police killed five people and wounded 18 after they fired at stone-throwing opposition supporters in Addis Ababa today.
Ambulances rushed the casualties to two hospitals in the capital as police armoured personnel carriers patrolled the central Mercato market area after the clashes.
Hurling stones, demonstrators set up makeshift roadblocks of burning tyres and smashed in the windscreens of several cars. Many of the wounded said the police attacked first.
The authorities acknowledged people had been killed today but gave no details, saying only that those who had been shot had tried to attack police.
The disturbances were the first in Addis Ababa since post-election clashes killed 36 people in June, in the capital's worst violence in four years.