At least 20 people were killed in weekend clashes with police in two central Tunisian towns amid protests over the cost of living, the opposition said Sunday, contradicting an official toll of two dead.
Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, leader of the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) said the death toll had been collated by his party's network of members in the south-central towns of Kasserine and Tala, the epicentre of clashes since Friday.
Chebbi appealed to Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali "to call an immediate cease-fire to spare the lives of innocent citizens and respect their right to protest."
The toll contradicts a statement from the interior ministry earlier Sunday, which said two people had been killed and eight wounded after security forces fired on demonstrators.
"Reports reaching us from Kasserine and Tala speak of at least 20 killed by bullets in the clashes which were continuing this morning," said Chebbi
Chebbi, quoting his party's network of sources in the towns, said funeral processions for the victims had been fired upon on Sunday.
Witnesses earlier told AFP that four people had been killed by gunfire in Kasserine. Some witnesses said the toll could rise because of "the large number of seriously injured" in the clashes.
The interior ministry, in a statement carried by government news agency TAP, said "many security force members" had been injured, "including three in a serious condition".
It said the security forces had fired on demonstrators after a warning but said this was an act of "legitimate self defence".
"From 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) groups of individuals attacked the service station, the local regional authority headquarters and the police station, using Molotov cocktails and stones," the ministry said.
"These individuals then went to the Delegation (local authority) headquarters which was under the protection of the security forces, proceeding to encircle it and attack it with firebombs, stones and sticks".
Security forces tried "in vain" to warn the protesters, before using their weapons "in an act of legitimate self defence when the assailants tried to enter the Delegation headquarters by force," it said.
Union sources said troops were deployed on Saturday for the first time since the crisis erupted in the central town of Sidi Bouzid in mid-December, and had taken up positions around public buildings. However, they had taken no direct action against the demonstrators.
Union official Belgacem Sayhi said the death toll in Tala alone reached five early Sunday when a 17-year old youth died from his injuries. He said the victims had been killed when police opened fire on demonstrators in the town centre.
Another union official Sadok Mahmoudi, told AFP that angry demonstrators had on Friday set several official buildings and a bank on fire in Tala, a few dozen kilometres from Kasserine near the border with Algeria, where at least four people have reportedly been killed in days of rioting over rising food prices.