Four Sudanese policemen were shot and wounded in Khartoum during an anti-government riot staged by university students who support a dissident Islamist leader, police and newspapers said Monday.
Two of the policemen were reported seriously injured in Sunday's riot, the latest in a month-long surge of violence blamed on opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, a former ally of President Omar Bashir.
At least four students were arrested and a number of pistols and Molotov cocktails were seized during the clash, police and newspapers said.
The Sudan Police Department said in a statement overnight Sunday that four policemen were rushed to hospital and placed in the intensive care unit with gunshot wounds received when Sudan University students opened fire.
The riot followed a political rally organized by Turabi's dissident Popular National Congress (PNC) party, the police statement said. The PNC students, countering an attempt to disperse them, fired bullets and threw petrol bombs at the police, the police statement said.
The police did not say if they returned fire.
A security source said senior PNC officials, Ibrahim al-Sanousi and Badr Eddin Taha, were among the speakers at the rally which was held inside the university campus.
The police have filed charges of attempted murder against the students and begun an investigation into the incidents, the security source told independent Al Rai Al Aam daily.
The source said four students were arrested for involvement in the demonstration and shootings and a number of 6.35-mm pistols and Molotov cocktails were seized.
Akhbar al-Youm daily said meanwhile that five policemen were injured, identifying them by names and saying that two of them were seriously hurt - KHARTOUM (AFP)
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