Thousands flee as clashes in Nigerian city escalate

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Gangs of youths armed with machetes, swords, and bows and arrows took to the streets of Lagos Monday in a third day of ethnic bloodletting in Nigeria's commercial capital. At least 55 people have been killed.

Grabbing what possessions they could, thousands fled as plumes of black smoke rose from the city's slums. The violence was the latest blow to a city shaken by explosions at an army munitions depot that killed at least 1,000 people last week.

Soldiers were deployed Monday to help contain the violence, which began Saturday between Yoruba and Hausa tribal fighters in the poorer neighborhoods.

Nigerian Red Cross President Emmanuel Ijewere said his organization had counted 55 bodies by late Sunday and was helping care for more than 150 people with gunshot, machete and other serious wounds at area hospitals.

But witnesses spoke of dozens more killed overnight in clashes they said spread to the nearby neighborhoods of Fadeyi and Onipanu.

Monday, a photographer saw a mob of Hausas hacking to death a suspected militant.