KANO (Nigeria), Feb 18: Nigerian rioters killed at least 15 people on Saturday in the northern city of Maiduguri, after police dispersed a demonstration against the publication of blasphemous cartoons in some European newspapers, witnesses and police said.

The protesters turned on Maiduguri’s Christian minority, burning churches and shops, as army troops and police reinforcements were deployed to the city to restore order.

It was the first violent protest over the cartoons in Africa’s most populous country of over 140 million people divided about equally between Christians and Muslims.

“We’ve arrested 115 people. Some 15 persons were killed by rioters, and 11 churches burnt,” Deputy Commissioner Haz Iwendi, a police spokesman, said.

The far northeastern state located on the edge of Lake Chad, is a predominantly Muslim state with a sizeable Christian population. The state has recently seen an increase in Muslim militancy.

Last week, assembly members in the northwestern state of Kano burned Danish flags in protest at the publication of the cartoons and said they would impose a boycott of Danish goods.

The state government said troops were deployed in the streets of the capital to restore order.

“Borno state was shocked and disgusted by ... the civil disturbance that occurred in Maiduguri as a result of the protest by the Muslim community over the publication of a cartoon depicting the Holy Prophet (pbuh),” the state governor Modu Sheriff said in a radio and television broadcast.

Last week, assembly members in the northwestern state of Kano burned Danish flags in protest against the publication of the cartoons and said they would impose a boycott of Danish goods.

EUROPE: About 3,500 protestors demonstrated in two German cities, Duisburg in the west and Kassel in the centre.