Three protesters were killed and several wounded in Ivory Coast's main city on Tuesday after shooting near a hotel controlled by French soldiers where demonstrators had massed to support President Laurent Gbagbo. The shooting broke out soon after South African President Thabo Mbeki left Gbagbo's house, which is less than 1 km (0.6 miles) from the hotel in Abidjan.
A Reuters reporter who arrived shortly after the shooting saw two bodies with gunshot wounds and another without a head as well as several protesters injured on the ground near the Hotel Ivoire in the plush Cocody district of Abidjan.
Protesters said the gunfire had come from French troops, shooting to disperse the crowd.