Rioters burn down Nigeria police station

Rioters went on a rampage in central Nigeria and burnt down a police station to protest the detention of their friends, police said Monday.

"The arsonists overwhelmed the police and burnt the police station after freeing their friends who were arrested at an annual festival for fighting where one tried to hack the other with an axe", Plateau state police spokesman Samuel Dabai told AFP.

He said police fired into the air to disperse the protesters, numbering some 500, killing one of them on Sunday in the town of Miango near Jos, the restive state capital.

"One of the rioters was hit and killed by a bullet when police fired shots to scare them away", he said.

Jos which lies in the middle-belt region between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south of Africa's most populous nation, has seen an upsurge in violence in recent years, leaving hundreds dead.