21 people have been arrested for vandalizing shops in Kasungu during anti-lockdown demos on Saturday.

Accordng to Kasungu Police spokesperson Harry Namwaza, the arrested 21 will answer various charges including theft, malicious damage and inciting violence.

“Three shops in town have been looted and a number of some Burundi nationals’ shops operating in various localities like Chitete, Maplot and Chimbuna. So far we have arrested 21 people in connection to the looting and will appear in court once we finish our investigations,” said Namwaza.

Traders in Kasungu took to the streets to protest government plans to lockdown the country from midnight of April 18 to midnight of May 9 as one of the preventive measures of Covid-19 pandemic.

Things did not go well when some traders started looting shops, a development that forced the police to fire teargas to disperse the crowd.

Three people were treated at Kasungu District Hospital after the police fired teargas at the health facility.