PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Violence erupted again yesterday in Port-au-Prince, one day after three policemen were killed in a clash with protesters demanding the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Protesters in western Martissant suburb fired shots in the air, blocked the western highway with piles of burning tyres and smashed car windows, witnesses said.

In the sprawling seaside slum of Cite Soleil, a gunman told a reporter that two street gangs loyal to Aristide were shooting it out, and that one gang leader was killed overnight.

Several main roads in downtown Port-au-Prince were blocked by flaming barricades and piles of rocks. The usually bustling marketplace was empty.

“Everybody is afraid. There’s no security here,” said Fritz Jean, 43, a used- television vendor.

“Lavalas supporters ordered the vendors to stay off the streets today,” said Joanel Louis, a 30-year-old unemployed customs officer. “They told everybody to stay home.”

Radio stations reported that people looted at least one store Thursday night in front of the gutted remains of St John Bosco Church, where militiamen in 1988 shot and hacked to death more than a dozen parishioners listening to a sermon by Aristide.

Aristide’s Lavalas Family party on Thursday began three days of commemoration of the 1991 coup that unseated him for the first time. They also demanded an end to “the occupation” and “the invasion” by foreign troops – referring to the US-led force that followed Aristide’s February ouster and the UN peacekeepers who have taken over since June.

Tensions have exploded in Haiti as the country struggles to recover from catastrophic floods caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne two weeks ago. The storm killed more than 1,550 and left 900 missing, most presumed dead. Almost all the victims were in the northwestern city of Gonaives.

Yesterday, hundreds of survivors in Gonaives howled in anguish when a UN food distribution centre ran out of wheat and oil at lunchtime. As the crowd of about 700 prepared to charge, Haitian riot police waded in, beating them back with batons.

“We are hungry! We are thirsty!” people screamed.

Bread was supposed to be distributed too, but most was looted by people who smashed rocks at the windows of the closed vehicle filled with the loaves, said Samuel Derivois of CARE, the international humanitarian group in charge of distributing the food, most from the UN World Food Programme.

On Thursday, demonstrators in Port-au-Prince shot and killed three officers, and were believed to have kidnapped a fourth, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said.

The violence erupted during a march by supporters of Aristide, now in exile in South Africa, to commemorate the 13th anniversary of his 1991 ouster by Haiti’s army.

Thousands of slum dwellers wound through downtown Port-au-Prince carrying photos of Aristide and chanting “Like it or not, Aristide will return!”

Some chanted “Down with Bush!” and demanded an end to “the occupation” and “the invasion” by foreign troops.

Protesters passed through a plaza in front of the National Palace and were a few blocks away when shots rang out.

Aristide has accused US agents of kidnapping him when he was flown out of Haiti on a US-chartered jet February 29. The government of President Bush insists Aristide left of his own free will.

Aristide, a former slum priest who promised to help the poor, became Haiti’s first freely elected president in 1990. He was ousted within months by the army, restored to power by US troops in 1994, then forced to step down by US pressure and a term limit. Aristide was re-elected in 2000.

In February, a street gang in Gonaives known as the Cannibal Army rose up against Aristide, sparking a rebellion joined by soldiers from the former army that Aristide disbanded in 1995.

US troops arrived as Aristide left but did little to disarm rebels, who are demanding the reinstatement of the army, have formed their own political party and have friendly relations with the US-installed interim government.