Two Congolese policemen were killed today when supporters of a presidential candidate went on the rampage after part of his compound was destroyed by a fire days before historic elections, UN officials said.
Followers of former rebel chief Jean-Pierre Bemba also looted a church and set buildings ablaze as tensions flared in the riverside capital ahead of what will be the first multi-party polls in 40 years in Democratic Republic of Congo.
The violence in Kinshasa erupted a day after a Congolese militia chief in the east of the country agreed to disarm in a move welcomed by UN peacekeepers in the country.
Police were attacked after a mystery blaze destroyed a barracks housing bodyguards of Bemba, a vice-president in the transitional government who is standing in Sunday's landmark polls, UN officials said.
As night fell, truckloads of riot police patrolled the streets of the capital.
A Reuters reporter saw the burned body of a child in the ruins of the barracks. UN radio said two people were killed in the fire, the causes of which were not immediately known.
Angry Bemba supporters accused French Mirage jets, which flew low over the capital as part of a European military force backing the UN peacekeeping mission, of bombing the barracks. A European force spokesman dismissed the accusation.
The Bemba supporters chased away UN vehicles and roughed up foreign journalists near a rally in support of the candidate.
They also set fire to the national media authority office, a beer warehouse and a musician's home and looted a Protestant church, witnesses said. The pro-Bemba militants accused the musician and the church's pastor of being supporters of President Joseph Kabila.
"The people stole everything from the church. They even set fires inside. The pastor fled," said Raphael Kose, 39, who saw the incident. Witnesses said police fired warning shots but left shortly after.