Four 'looters' shot dead in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans police shot and killed four men and wounded one other after looters fired on officers, a policeman said.

The incident happened on Saturday morning (Sunday NZ time) and came as the city began to clean up from the devastation of hurricane Katrina. No police were wounded.

"Five men who were looting exchanged gunfire with police. The officers engaged the looters when they were fired upon," said superintendent of New Orleans police, Steven Nichols.

Asked for more details, he said only, "The incident is under police investigation."

Meanwhile, efforts to evacuate the remainder of New Orleans' weary population met with some resistance as residents in areas less affected by Hurricane Katrina refused to leave their homes and businesses.

"They'll have to drag me out by my feet," said Mike Reed, 49, as he swept debris from the streets of the city's historic French Quarter, which experienced light flooding in comparison to other neighbourhoods.

"I have too many responsibilities here. I ain't going," Reed said.

Blocks away, a black couple argued over whether to accept a National Guardsman's offer of a lift to a local airfield and a flight out of the city. "I don't want to go," the woman, who identified herself as Stella, told her husband.

"Let's go home," the man replied. And with that the couple pushed a shopping cart loaded with their scant personal belongings down the street.

Authorities have now evacuated thousands of residents since the hurricane came ashore on Monday, bringing with it a flood surge that immersed large sections of the low-lying city. Thousands are believed to have been killed.

The evacuation picked up speed this weekend as tens of thousands of people left New Orleans in helicopters, planes, buses and trains en route to temporary shelters in other parts of Louisiana, Texas and other parts of the United States.

Although the death toll has continued to rise as people succumbed to illness and exhaustion before and after arriving at emergency shelters, troops say they are finding it hard to persuade some to leave the city.

"We're trying to get people to go, but we're not having much luck today," said one soldier who was attempting to persuade a group of four to board a bus out of a central New Orleans neighborhood.

Those who are defying the evacuation tend to live in areas least affected by the hurricane. Their willingness to wait out the disaster has been bolstered by an influx of water, food and other necessities in recent days.

The military's apparent success to restore calm in New Orleans after an orgy of violence erupted in the days after the hurricane also has reassured those determined to stay. "I'm not scared. I feel safe here," said James Butler, 62, who lives in the French Quarter.

But Butler is among the lucky ones as he has a dry place to live. For those in outlying areas that are still under water, there is little choice but to take up the authorities' offers of a lift out of the city.

- REUTERS