Zimbabwe riot after police mistakenly kill vendor

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Rioters set fire to cars and shattered windows in a Harare city mall on Saturday after a street vendor was killed by a stray gunshot from a policeman, police said.

Dozens of police fired teargas and several people were injured as officers battled to control about 200 people who had attacked police in Harare's old city district after the accidental shooting, witnesses said.

Calm was later restored to the area. But police confirmed that the woman vendor had been killed by a stray shot in the neck after an officer fired on a commuter minibus that had defied an order to stop at a nearby roadblock.

"We are investigating the case...but obviously we are very sorry for what happened," a police spokesman said, declining to give more details.

The incident was the second in as many months and is a sign of the increasing tension in Zimbabwe, where people are becoming angrier and more volatile as the result of a deepening economic crisis blamed on President Robert Mugabe.

The southern African country is struggling with a severe fuel shortage, and government statistics show that poverty afflicts 75 percent of the 12.5 million population from 40 percent 10 years ago.

Zimbabwe has suffered several riots in the last three years over food prices, wages and taxes. Last month a municipal policeman in Zimbabwe's eastern border city of Mutare triggered a riot after accidentally shooting dead a baby strapped to the back of her mother at the town's main bus terminus.

Mugabe, who has been in power since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain 20 years ago, was endorsed as the ruling ZANU-PF's leaders at a party congress on Friday.

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