"There are dead and maimed," Sylvain Groulx, the head of Doctors Without Borders in the strife-torn country, told AFP, as his organization deployed a medical and surgical team to Bangui.
Heavy arms fire rocked several districts of the city from around 5:30 am (0430 GMT), while automatic weapons could be heard starting in the PK-12 area in the north, then spreading to other districts near the city centre, AFP journalists said.
The violence erupted
as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on a resolution authorising thousands of African and French troops to end anarchy in the former French colony, where massacres have led to warnings of mass sectarian festivities.A senior officer in the African MISCA peacekeeping force said the fighting broke out after former rebels of the Seleka alliance, who ousted president Francois Bozize in March, saw their foes in "anti-balaka" militias trying to infiltrate the Boy-Rabe district.