Protesters in Tripoli shot by militia unit

The Libyan capital was braced for fresh violence after a day in which at least 37 were killed and more than 400 wounded in a confrontation outside a militia headquarters.

In some of the bloodiest fighting since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, a Misrata militia unit opened fire on protesters who had massed outside their Tripoli base, demanding they leave the city.

Hospitals were overwhelmed with the dead and wounded and Prime Minister Ali Zeidan appealed for calm, declaring three days of national mourning.

The United Nations and European Union evacuated non-essential staff from Libya yesterday, with foreign embassies going into security lockdown.

Eyewitnesses said that anti-aircraft weapons were fired at the protesters outside the base in the city's Gharghur district, amid conflicting reports of who fired first. The demonstrators, including women and teenagers, many carrying white placards and flags, fled the firing seeking the shelter of nearby houses.

TV footage showed militiamen deployed around the base firing heavy machine guns from the flatbeds of pick-up trucks. A spokesman for the Misrata militia unit, Taha Basha Agha, insisted that some protesters had been armed and had fired first, shooting from nearby rooftops. He said his unit would stay in its base, telling a TV station: "We will leave in our coffins."

The violence underscores the inability of Libya's Government to rein in the powerful militias, who formed during the revolution but have since become a law unto themselves, with the government weak and national congress divided.

- Observer