Harare was under a virtual stage of siege last night after the Zimbabwean government deployed troops in townships surrounding the capital and ordered them to shoot at rioters if protests against rising food prices continued into a third day.
Amid a clampdown unprecedented since independence in 1980, police using tear-gas yesterday prevented thousands of township protesters from entering Harare's business district.
The Home Affairs Minister, Mr Dumiso Dabengwa, said troops were "armed with live ammunition and would not hesitate to shoot any people who are engaged in looting and trouble-making".
Last night armoured vehicles took up position in the huge Chitungwiza township 32 kms (20 miles) south of the capital and helicopters dropped tear-gas on poor areas north and north-west of Harare. Protesters threw stones at passing cars, shops were looted and burnt and state radio reported that a toddler was killed by rampaging crowds in a township.
In the centre, where most shops and businesses closed yesterday, fearing a repeat of Monday's looting, an eerie calm prevailed. Schools and tobacco factories shut down because staff from the townships could not get to work.
The government responded to the riots by ordering private millers to scrap a 21 per cent rise in the price of the staple maize meal, which followed a 24 per cent increase on January 5th. But the intervention came too late; all food prices have soared since mid-November when the Zimbabwean dollar collapsed as a result of economic mismanagement and policies which have alarmed foreign investors and white farmers.
The crisis, which shows no signs of abating, was greeted with only a limp response yesterday from President Robert Mugabe. He said: "Although the government sympathises with the plight of the protesters, destroying property is unacceptable." He added that the cabinet would meet "soon" to discuss the situation.
Observers believe President Mugabe (74) and ministers from his party, the Zimbabwean National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), have exacerbated the trouble by blaming the poor state of the country's economy on white "profiteers", such as the 4,000 farmers who own the best third of the nation's land.
But in the townships, despite sporadic attacks on whites and others showing signs of wealth, such as car drivers, few people in the townships appeared to believe the Zanu-PF line.
Mr Dzonkonja Tonderai (26) was selling bananas for Z$1.50 (5p) each, a third more than last week.
He said: "The government is not running the country properly. If they chase out the white farmers, like they say they want to, the land will only go to their Zanu-PF cronies.
"Mugabe needs to be replaced but we also need the whites - even if that is a historical hangover - because they have the best land, they farm it well and their friends bring money into the country," said Mr Tonderai.
The leading opposition politician, Ms Margaret Dongo, and the ZCTU yesterday pointed out that the unrest continues to be spontaneous and sporadic - the very factors which have made it so hard for the government to contain.