SANTIAGO: A man died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a supermarket was torched in Chile’s capital Friday, and another succumbed to injuries sustained in clashes with police, bringing the death toll in a new wave of unrest to four.
Protests that flared up in October — initially over a rise in metro fares — had appeared to have calmed down during the summer holidays in Chile.
But there has been a spike in violent protests this week.
A mob looted and then set fire to the supermarket in southern Santiago in the early hours of Friday.
When firefighters arrived they found a dead man aged 30 to 40 and two other people suffering from signs of asphyxiation.
He died from “asphyxiation by inhaling carbon monoxide,” police chief Carolina Nunez told local media.
Another man died Friday, two days after being shot in the head during a protest near a police station in southern Santiago.
(With inputs from agencies)
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