Rioting sparked by Muslim anger over a newspaper article on the Miss World beauty pageant spread to the country's capital Abuja and to new areas of the northern city of Kaduna, already the scene of 100 deaths, today.
Nigerian police swiftly dispersed the Abuja protests but as a strictcurfew began in Kaduna, a Red Cross spokesman warned that the death toll was expected to increase as clashes between Muslims and Christians has shifted to four new areas.
Thousands of civilians were seen fleeing streets littered with corpses in the flashpoint city, heading towards police barracks to seek shelter from the fighting.
Meanwhile in the capital Abuja, Muslims stormed out of the national mosque after Friday prayers and set fire to cars, including at least two police vehicles, witnesses said.
Police dispersed the protesters with the use of teargas and made several arrests in the centre of the modern capital, which is usually spared Nigeria's endemic mob violence.
On Wednesday, Muslim youths burned down a newspaper office in Kaduna in protest at what they said was a "blasphemous" article which suggested the Prophet Mohammed would have married a Miss World contestant.
The pageant is due to take place in Abuja on December 7 and the presence of 90 young women contestants in the country during the holy month of Ramadan has offended many Muslims.
Since they started, the riots in Kaduna have degenerated into a street battle between parts of the city's rival Muslim and Christian communities, local agencies and people said.
The Red Cross counted 100 dead and 521 injured in an early toll today but is expecting many more.
Despite the trouble, Miss World's organisers insisted that they had no intention of cancelling the pageant, a determination that was supported by Nigeria's President Obasanjo.
AFP