In the first serious incident of violence in Bangui this year, the assault late yesterday saw two unidentified attackers hurl grenades at a cafe called "On the Crossroads of Peace" during a performance, said Herve Verhoosel, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force MINUSCA.
CAR's minister for public security, Henri Wanzet, told state radio that four people had died in the attack and around 20 were injured. An official probe has been opened, Wanzet said.
Even though relative peace has been restored in Central Africa following the civil war that erupted in 2013, inter- communal tensions remain.
Among those injured in Saturday's attack were several musicians from the group that was performing, Verhoosel said.
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A doctor at the hospital where the injured were rushed for treatment said 21 people had been admitted.
Seven others were taken to another health centre, a local official with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical charity said.
"They were two motorcycle-taxi drivers and a young man who was walking in the neighbourhood," the man, who asked not to be identified, told AFP. "They are innocents".
He appealed for calm in the neighbourhood where sporadic gunfire could be heard and armed members of "self-defence" groups patrolled. An armoured car carrying MINUSCA troops was stationed at the entrance to PK5.
An AFP correspondent saw three bodies taken to the morgue from a local mosque.
In a video posted on his Facebook page, the concert's singer Ozaguin -- dubbed the king of Central African rumba -- confirmed six of his fellow musicians had been injured.
He said he was surprised that he was not himself injured by grenade fragments.
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