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Four more deaths in Delhi violence, hospital source says, toll 17
  • | AFP | February 26, 2020 01:53 PM
Four more people have died in some of the worst sectarian violence in decades in New Delhi, a hospital source told AFP on Wednesday, taking the death toll from several days of rioting to 17.

Protests against a contentious citizenship law on Sunday descended Monday and Tuesday into running battles between Hindus and Muslims, as rioters armed with stones, swords and even guns went out in force in the Indian capital.

"There were 13 dead yesterday. Four more were brought in dead today," the senior source at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital where most of the injured have been brought told AFP, without wishing to be named.

The rioting in northeastern parts of the sprawling megacity of 20 million people left a trail of destruction as mobs set fire to vehicles, buildings including a tyre market.

The violence raged just as US President Donald Trump visited India on Monday and Tuesday, holding talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump left as scheduled on Tuesday.

Authorities in New Delhi were bracing Wednesday for more violence, bringing in riot police and paramilitary reinforcements.

Protests have broken out across India since the citizenship law came into force in December, leaving at least 30 people killed in clashes with police in December, mostly in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

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