Baku-APA. Several protesters were wounded by gunfire on Monday as Guinean police battled to control violent demonstrations in the capital Conakry against the regime of President Alpha Conde, APA reports quoting AFP.
Rioting broke out around 9:30 am (0930 GMT) in several suburbs including Simbaya and Hamdallaye, and angry protests continued as at least seven youths were treated for gunshot wounds.
The opposition had called for demonstrations across the capital against a lack of stability, which it blames on Conde's government.
A hospital doctor told AFP that the security forces shot three protesters during clashes in Hamdallaye.
The medic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP two of the protesters sustained leg injuries while a third with a serious stomach wound was dragged several metres by police before being abandoned.
"He was quickly rescued by his comrades," a policeman told AFP.
Four other protesters were wounded in the northeastern suburb of Simbaya, witnesses and a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The government cited police and hospital sources as saying 10 people had been injured, six by gunfire, and that eight people had been arrested.
Opposition parties put the number of injured at 30 and said seven people had been shot, and were in critical condition.
The government denied that the police had fired at protesters, while warning that "individuals currently engaged in acts of vandalism may in no circumstances be treated as peaceful activists".
The statement, from the Department of Security and Civil Protection, added that the head of the army had ordered troops to remain in their barracks.
The gunfire could be heard into the mid-afternoon -- albeit with lessening intensity -- as youths gathered in the streets, according to an AFP correspondent who witnessed panicked residents trying to get home.
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