Ecuador arrests 370 people in two days of anti-austerity protests

The government said security forces had managed to subdue protests in some provinces and restore 'normality'

Ecuadorean protesters halted transport, barricaded streets and clashed with police for a second day on Friday as almost 370 people were jailed over unrest triggered by President Lenin Moreno's scrapping of fuel subsidies.

The 66-year-old president has set oil producer Ecuador on a centrist path after years of leftist rule under Rafael Correa and is implementing a belt-tightening fiscal package to conform with a $4.2 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal.

But his elimination of the decades-old fuel subsidies has incensed many Ecuadoreans and brought violent protests back to a nation with a history of political volatility.

From the highland capital Quito to