UN soldiers open fire to stop Liberia mob justice

UN peacekeepers in Liberia fired into the air on Wednesday to disperse an angry crowd who burned down a police station as they tried to kill a detainee accused of murdering a local businesswoman. Residents in the eastern town of Tappita said Bangladeshi UN soldiers, stationed in the country since a 1989-2003 civil war, opened fire after local police officers fled as their station burnt to the ground. "As I speak to you, there is serious shooting going on. The Bangladeshis are firing in the air," eyewitness Joe Dantu, a Tappita businessman, told Reuters by telephone, the sound of several rounds of gunfire echoing behind him. A spokesman for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said peacekeepers had only shot three rounds into the air and that a team of Nigerian UN police officers were on their way from a nearby town to help control the situation. Reuters.