ANTANANARIVO, Jan 26: Two people died on Monday when tens of thousands of anti-government protesters flooded the streets of Madagascar’s capital, burning the state-owned TV and radio station.

A security source said a policeman and a 14-year-old child had been killed on the massive Indian Ocean island during the demonstration calling for President Marc Ravalomanana’s government to resign.

“We know of two deaths,” the source said.

A local journalist, Fano Rakopondrazaka, said 11 people had died in a stampede during the chaos.

“I saw 11 dead men. They were looters crushed in a stampede,” he said. But the claim could not be independently confirmed.

The protests came on the first day of strikes called by the opposition.

They are angry at a government decision to shut down a private television station owned by the capital’s maverick 34-year-old mayor and opposition leader, Andry Rajoelina.

Authorities shut the station last December after it broadcast remarks by the exiled former President, Didier Ratsiraka. The government deemed the remarks likely to incite civil disorder.

The government has accused Rajoelina of stirring up a revolt and called for calm and order across the capital Antananarivo.

“All this is the response of a population facing economic difficulties and an absence of democracy,” one demonstrator said, as black flames billowed out of a supermarket behind him.

Witnesses said angry youths looted shops and burnt buildings belonging to the local radio and national television stations.—Reuters