LOME, Togo (AP) -- Opposition supporters protesting the presidential election victory by the son of Togo's longtime dictator threw Molotov cocktails and rocks during street clashes with security forces in the capital Wednesday, leaving at least six people dead and some foreign embassies damaged.
The dead included at least three civilians, said Gerard Besson, an International Committee of the Red Cross delegate. At least 100 people were reported wounded in the clashes that began Tuesday.
Interior Minister Folly Bazi Katari reported heavy looting in Lome.
"Those responsible for these actions will be severely punished," he said. "This is not political protest any more, but robbery and destruction."
Clashes pitting riot police against opposition party supporters began after the announcement that Faure Gnassingbe had won Sunday's presidential election. Gnassingbe won 1.3 million votes, or 60 percent, while main opposition candidate Bob Akitani took 841,000, or 38 percent, electoral commission Chairwoman Kissem Tchangai Walla said.
Tear gas and fires
Balloting in this impoverished West African nation was marred by violence and allegations of vote-tampering.
Akitani, who has been in hiding since the election, issued a statement declaring himself president and saying the government vote count had been fraudulent and ballot counting by the opposition in many parts of the country had put him ahead of Gnassingbe. He called on opposition youth to fight the government.
"You must know to remain mobilized, to remain determined," Akitani said in a message to his supporters. "At the expense of our lives, we must be opposed to people who think they have divine order to govern this country. The struggle will be long, but victory will be ours. We will be invincible. Resist, resist, until the final victory."
After the results were announced Tuesday, mobs of young men raged across the capital, setting stacks of tires ablaze and unleashing plumes of smoke that darkened the horizon. Protesters used machetes and nail-studded clubs to battle police and soldiers.
Through the afternoon, security forces with tear gas and concussion grenades scattered the protesters.
By late Tuesday, more than 100 wounded people had been admitted to Lome's main hospital, said Abram Morel, a Red Cross medical coordinator. Several people suffered gunshot wounds, while others were beaten by protesters and security forces, he said.
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