Seven more people were killed in Burundi's capital in violence associated with turmoil over President Pierre Nkurunziza's extension of his term in office, witnesses said today.
The international community has warned that the central African country could slide into chaos if the killings continue.
The UN says at least 240 people have been killed since April when Nkurunziza's candidacy was announced.
Men in police uniforms pulled five people from their houses in Cibitoke neighborhood and shot them dead today morning, resident Salima Bukuru said.
Their bodies were left on the roadside, she said.
"That one works for a company which processes soap. He had just returned home from the night shift when they came for him.
They beat him as they pulled him out of the house," Bukuru said pointing at a body among the group of five bloody corpses on the side of the street in Cibitoke.
"I asked why they were beating him and they started to beat me," she said.
Rights activist Vital Nshimiyimana said some of the five murdered had just been released from prison where they had been held for months after being arrested for protesting against Nkurunziza's third term in office.
"The killings were predetermined by the police," Nshimiyimana said.
About 100 people who opposed Nkurunziza's bid to extend his tenure were released yesterday.
Another person was shot dead in the afternoon in the Jabe neighborhood, while another was killed in Bwiza by people in police uniform on yesterday night.
Nkurunziza took power in 2005 near the end of a civil war in which some 300,000 people died.
This year Burundi has been unsettled by months of violent street protests following the announcement in April that Nkurunziza would seek a third term.
The unrest boiled over into a failed coup in May. Nkurunziza was re-elected in July.
