A South African Anglican archbishop was among the injured Friday when violent scuffles broke out at a Cape Town church where hundreds of foreign nationals have been sheltered, clerical and human rights officials said.
The Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, with a group of clergymen and human rights officials who were trying to address the foreigners, many claiming to be asylum-seekers and demanding relocation from South Africa.
More than 200 have occupied Greenmarket Square Methodist church in Cape Town since police forcefully removed them two weeks ago from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices where they staged a sit-in.
Pastor Alan Storey said he had asked the people to start vacating the church because "it is completely overcrowded, it's not a safe environment. If there was a fire we would be left with people dead."