Thousands flee as ethnic clashes escalate

Thousands are fleeing Nigeria's largest city in a third day of escalating bloodletting between two of the predominant tribes.

Witnesses say dozens have been killed overnight in the streets of Idi Araba and Mushin, impoverished Lagos neighborhoods.

The fighting was sparked by a petty dispute on Saturday evening when one person defecated outside the home of someone else.

Hundreds of police moved in and imposed a 8pm-6am curfew after the fighting between Yoruba and Hausa tribal fighters.

A press photographer says he witnessed a mob of Hausas hacking to death a suspected Yoruba militant with cutlasses and machetes.

The body of another man lay on the street outside the area's main hospital bordering the two neighborhoods.

Reporters counted 17 more burned, mutilated bodies on Sunday.

Plumes of black smoke rose from several square kilometres of slums on Monday, and witnesses fleeing the area said thousands of homes had been razed.

There are long-standing hostilities between the mainly Muslim Hausas and the Yorubas, most of whom are Christians and animists. The Hausas dominate Nigeria's north, while the Yorubas are the main tribe in the southwest.