At least 37 people have been killed in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters protesting against the results of governorship polls in Congo's most western province, officials said today.
The violence which erupted from late last night in several Bas-Congo province towns appeared to be the worst since President Joseph Kabila won last year's presidential election in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr Kabila defeated his rival, former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, in what were the first free elections held in more than 40 years in the vast, former Belgian colony.
Mr Bemba supporters in Bas-Congo clashed with armed police and soldiers after taking to the streets to protest against the results of governors' elections last Saturday mostly won by pro-Kabila candidates.
"We've got 25 bodies here, including two police officers," said one hospital administrator at Boma, a town across the Congo river from the provincial capital Matadi.
UN Okapi Radio quoted the mayor of Matadi as saying 12 people had been killed in the riverside port, and that more deaths had been reported from Moanda on the Atlantic coast.
But reports of casualties were confused and officials from the UN peacekeeping force in Congo said it was too early to give a definitive death toll.
The violence followed a verbal attack by Bemba on Kabila last week in which he accused the president's camp of buying local assembly members' votes for governors and senators.
"The troubles began last night and continued this morning," said Leonard Fuka Unzola, the defeated opposition candidate in the local Bas-Congo governor elections.
"There were dead bodies outside my residence."
Interior Minister General Denis Kalume travelled to the province to direct efforts to control the violence.