Zimbabwe riot police patrolled volatile districts in Harare yesterday, a day after arresting opposition leaders and killing a man while crushing a prayer meeting organised in defiance of a ban on political rallies. Dozens of police riot squads in trucks and on foot – armed with shotguns, teargas cannisters and launchers, rubber batons, shields, and wearing protective helmets – patrolled the dusty streets of Highfield, a Harare suburb.

“It’s quiet today. There is lots of anger but also lots of fear after what happened yesterday,” a security guard told a Reuters correspondent. Political tension over the soaring cost of living and President Robert Mugabe’s increasingly controversial rule rose a notch on Sunday when riot squads fought opposition youths in the capital for the second time in a month. Police arrested Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition officials after preventing them from attending a planned prayer rally to address the deepening political and economic crisis.