Gunfire erupts near police bases in Cote d'Ivoire, no injuries reported

Gunfire erupted near several police installations across

Cote d'Ivoire's main city Abidjan late on Wednesday, witnesses and a

police source said, in what appeared to be a renewed bout of insecurity

following months of military mutinies.

Shooting broke

out at around 9.30 p.m. (2130 GMT) in the Cocody neighborhood near the

national police and gendarmes academies and lasted for around an hour,

according to one Reuters witness.

A second Reuters

reporter later heard sustained gunfire near the base of the police

anti-riot brigade in the Yopougon neighborhood in northern Abidjan.

A local resident also said shooting broke near a police station in another part of Yopougon.

"On

the radio in the station they were talking about an attack a bit all

over the place, including the police academy as well as Angre and

Attoban (neighborhoods)," a police officer told Reuters, asking not to

be named.

The unrest erupted just hours after

President Alassane Ouattara dismissed his defense minister and replaced

him with the minister of the interior.

The move was

seen as an attempt to put a stop to successive waves of armed uprisings

launched by members of the security forces demanding bonus payments.