A rebel army allied with Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president has taken control of a fourth town in the country’s far West, a military spokesman said.

Heavy fighting broke out near the border with Liberia between forces backing the political rivals who both claim to be Ivory Coast’s president, panicking tens of thousands of refugees who already had fled the violence.

HEAVY fighting erupted in western Ivory Coast between rebels and forces loyal to incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo, sources along the Liberian border told Reuters yesterday.