Madagascar police confirmed Tuesday that officers killed 19 people and injured 21 others after opening fire on what was described as a lynch mob angered over the kidnapping of an albino child.
"Nineteen people lost their lives and 21 are injured and are still being treated" at Ikongo hospital in the country's southeast, the national police said in a statement.
The hospital's chief physician, Tango Oscar Toky, confirmed the death toll speaking to AFP by phone on Tuesday.
A previous report from police Monday said 11 people had died.
Around 500 protesters armed with blades and machetes on Monday "tried to force their way" into a station, a police officer involved in the shooting said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Police said calm returned to Ikongo, a town about 350 kilometres (220 miles) south of the capital Antananarivo, on Tuesday, with additional officers deployed "in order to keep the peace".
An investigation into the incident was ongoing, police said, as they offered condolences to the families of the dead.
The kidnapping took place last week, according to Jean-Brunelle Razafintsiandraofa, a member of parliament for Ikongo district.
No further details have been released about the child. Officials said the child's mother was killed by "bandits".
Four suspects were arrested and taken into custody, but some members of the community allegedly decided to take matters into their own hands.
Andry Rakotondrazaka, the national police chief, told a news conference on Monday that what happened was a "very sad event. It could have been avoided but it happened".
He said the police "did everything to avoid confrontation", including negotiating with the crowd,
"But there were provocations" ... (and) there were people with "long-bladed knives and sticks", he said, adding others hurled stones towards the police.
"The gendarmes used tear gas. But that was not enough to stop the crowd from advancing. There was shooting in the air."
But in the end the gendarmes had "no choice but to resort to self-defence ... and limit the damage by shooting".
The kidnapping took place last week, according to Jean-Brunelle Razafintsiandraofa, a member of parliament for Ikongo district.
Revenge attacks
Revenge attacks are common in Madagascar.
In February 2017, a mob of 800 people barged into Ikongo prison in search of a murder suspect they intended to kill.
They overpowered guards and 120 prisoners broke out of jail.
In 2013, a Frenchman, a Franco-Italian and a local man accused of killing a child on the tourist island of Nosy Be were burned alive by a crowd.
Some sub-Saharan African countries have suffered a wave of assaults against people with albinism, whose body parts are sought for witchcraft practices in the mistaken belief that they bring luck and wealth.
Albinism, caused by a lack of melanin, the pigment that colours skin, hair and eyes, is a genetic condition that affects hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, particularly in Africa.
Under The Same Sun, a Canada-based charity working to combat discrimination, has been logging cases of similar violence across Africa.
It ranks Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania as the countries where such attacks are most prevalent.
Madagascar, a large Indian Ocean island country, is ranked among the poorest in the world.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
