[The Nation (Nairobi)] Gunmen rubbed out at least eight people in an attack on Cote d'Ivoire presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara's followers as the wait for delayed results descended into bloodshed, witnesses said on Thursday.Violence erupted as Mr Ouattara and President Laurent Gbagbo were locked in a stand-off over results of the hotly contested presidential vote, following pre-election violence that left at least another seven people dead.
Witnesses in the western Yopougon district of Abidjan, a stronghold of support for Gbagbo, said gunnies attacked on Wednesday night at the office, a local base for Ouattara's RDR party.
"People inside started yelling and the gunnies started shooting," one witness said, without indicating the identity of the attackers.
AFP photographers saw blood, bullet holes and gun cartridges at the RDR base and several people with bullet wounds being treated at a nearby hospital. A hospital source said about 15 people were maimed in the attack.
The military confirmed there was shooting in Yopougon on Wednesday night, but said an army patrol came under fire itself before shooting back, and gave a lower toll.
The patrol "was targeted by automatic gun fire... The patrol's response killed four people and injured 14," the army said in a statement released today afternoon. "Nine other people were jugged," it added.
A police source and an RDR official confirmed to AFP that at least eight people were killed. The RDR official said about 50 people were on the premises at the time, waiting for election results.
An official of Gbagbo's FPI party, Lazare Zaba Zadi, told AFP meanwhile that two people were maimed and a vehicle set alight in an attack on one of its offices nearby in Yopougon early on Thursday.
The election, aimed at ending a decade of instability in the world's top cocoa producer, stood in limbo after the deadline for results passed with no winner despite mounting international pressure for a resolution.