Abidjan — Cote d'Ivoire's commercial capital, Abidjan, echoed with the richochet of gunfire as troops shot live ammunition into the air to prevent demonstrators from advancing towards the presidential palace of General Robert Guei who has declared himself the winner of Sunday's election.

Agencies reported that one person died in the disturbances apparently aftera burst of gunfire.

Hundreds of rubber slippers were strewn all over the streets of the central business district as the demonstrators fled to avoid the tear gas that filled the air. There was shouting and screaming as soldiers used out truncheons and sticks, whipping and kicking the demonstrators, including many women.

At one point at least a dozen women were dragged from nearby huts, stripped bare and whipped as police forced them into waiting vehicles. One young woman in a flimsy purple t-shirt with blood streaming from her head and face, beat on the glass door of a building housing international journalists, begging to be let in.

The veteran socialist leader, Laurent Gbagbo, who had been confident of victory, held a press conference and told his supporters to come out onto the streets to demonstrate their opposition to the results announcement.

For his part, General Guei has expressed his thanks to the Ivorian people for voting him in.

France, the former colonial power, has said that it will not accept the result. French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, said: "What we are seeing in Abidjan is an attempt to take power by force. France will not accept this. Nor will the European Union. They will have to face the consequences."

The site of the clashes was once again calm at nightfall. The National Elections Commissioner Honoré Guie and the his staff who were earlier taken to the Presidency have reportedly been released but their whereabouts are not known.