Katrina: Evacuation disrupted by arson, gunfire

Fights and rubbish fires broke out, rescue helicopters were shot at and anger mounted across New Orleans today, as National Guardsmen in armoured vehicles poured in to help restore order across this increasingly desperate and lawless city.

“We are out here like pure animals. We don’t have help,” the Rev Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Centre, where corpses lay in the open and evacuees complained that they were dropped off and given nothing.