WORLD : 8 Killed as Thousands of Rival Black S. Africans Clash in Natal

Thousands of rival blacks fought running battles in strife-torn Natal province today, setting scores of houses ablaze and leaving at least eight people dead and 60 wounded in two days, witnesses and hospital sources said.

Authorities deployed police supported by army troops in an effort to halt the fighting between supporters of the African National Congress-linked United Democratic Front and the rival Inkatha tribal movement of moderate black leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

“It almost looks as though the whole area is burning,” Pietermaritzburg police spokesman Maj. Piet Kitching said. The fighting covered a 120-square-mile area encompassing several townships, witnesses said.

White opposition Democratic Party Regional Director Radley Keys toured the area by helicopter, estimating that there were as many as 20,000 blacks roaming the streets in mobs of 100.