AHMEDABAD, May 7: Nine people were killed on Tuesday while 10 others were injured in violence in Gujarat state.

The latest unrest came as opposition MPs walked out of parliament in protest over reports that relief camps housing hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the Gujarat violence could be closed.

A man riding a scooter was set on fire and killed and two other people were stabbed to death in the state’s commercial capital of Ahmedabad, a police spokesman said.

The scooterist was attacked by mobs in Sarkhej, on the outskirts of the city. The killing sparked off arson attacks in the area and a curfew was immediately imposed in Sarkhej and an adjoining neighbourhood.

Another person was killed in police firing in the city’s Vejalpur area.

A man was also set on fire by a mob and his body flung into a well in the Muslim-dominated Juapur area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The same rampaging mob then torched a truck and some shops.

“Two people died in the police firing aimed at breaking up the mob,” a police official said.

Two more deaths were reported by police, but no other details were available.

The latest killings bring the death toll in the fresh spate of violence since the weekend to 17.

Ten people, including five policemen, were also injured in different incidents of violence across the city.

Army patrols were sent out to quell the unrest while personnel from the state reserve police and a rapid action force were called in to assist.

In New Delhi, opposition MPs walked out of parliament saying they were not satisfied with the government’s response to media reports that the administration in Gujarat was considering closing relief camps there.—AFP