Tuesday, October 9 2:25 AM SGT

Two dead, at least 200 injured in Gaza riots

GAZA CITY, Oct 8 (AFP) - Two young Palestinians were killed and at least 200 others injured in vicious street fighting Monday in the Gaza Strip between Islamist students and Palestinian police, hospital sources and police said.

Half of the wounded were police, the sources said.

Two Palestinians -- 13-year-old Abdullah al-Franji and Yusef Bakr, 21 -- were shot dead in the clashes that erupted in Gaza City after police tried to disperse anti-American student demonstrations at the Islamic university, police said.

Franji was shot in the head and Bakr in the chest. Another demonstrator was listed in serious condition, while a police officer was hit in the head by a bullet.

Police blamed masked gunmen in the crowd, while protestors and a human rights group said it was the police themselves who fired on the two in Gaza City.

The hospital said 15 people were hit by bullets, another 38 were tear-gassed and 52 were hit by stones. The last figure included 18 police.

Another 80 police were treated in a military hospital, the medical sources said.

Fighting spread in the late afternoon deeper into the Gaza Strip.

Protestors stoned police stations in southern Khan Yunis, where 18 people were injured, including four hit by bullets. Police said they opened fire before calm was restored.

The central Nuseirat refugee camp also witnessed clashes, with Islamist protestors stoning the community's police station and exploding a gas canister against it, injuring at least one officer, witnesses said.

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2001