Nigerian police shot dead at least one man as fresh violence erupted in the northern city of Kano Monday, the fourth day of Muslim-Christian fighting. 
Police say 18 have been killed in the clashes since Friday. Community leaders put the figure at more than 200 dead. 
Witnesses said police, under orders since Saturday to shoot rioters on sight, fired at a young man at point blank range as police dispersed a crowd said to be planning reprisal attacks in the teeming district of Tudun Wada. 
"Police killed one of the nasty boys causing problems in our area," said Tudun Wada resident Esther Isaac, 24, who witnessed the killing. 
"He was telling people they should continue fighting. The mobile police shot him and the others in his group ran away," Isaac said. 
Fear of revenge killings have swept the ancient city since clashes erupted Friday after Muslims protested against U.S. military action in Afghanistan. 
The official death toll, which police say is based on the number of bodies recovered from the streets, has been hotly contested by community leaders. 
Nigeria is grappling with a rising wave of ethnic or religious bloodshed in which well over 2,000 people have died since army rule ended in Africa's most populous nation in 1999. 
The introduction of strict Islamic sharia law in parts of predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, despite opposition from non-Muslims, triggered violence early last year. 
But the sharia crisis appears to have only compounded historical ethnic and regional rivalries blamed for a devastating civil war in the late 1960s in which more than a million people died. 
Hundreds of people died in Muslim-Christian fighting in the central city of Jos last month and police are battling ethnic unrest in three other northern states. 
Kano Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso summoned a meeting of ethnic and religious leaders Monday amid reports that warring parties were regrouping. 
"Your presence will be highly appreciated, considering the prevailing security issues in the state," said the governor's invitation letter. 
Residents spent a fourth day huddled in their homes with reports of food running short. Shops and city markets have been shut since Friday. There has been no electricity or water in many working class districts in four days. 
In Sabon Gari, home to most non-Muslim immigrants, community leaders surrounded by heavily armed troops announced on a public address system that all business would be suspended until after the meeting with the governor. 
Boniface Ibekwe, president of the large Christian Ibo community that dominates the retail trade, also used the loudspeakers to call on the Ibo to leave the streets. 
"No Ibo man should be thinking of business. Go back to your houses. They have guaranteed us your security. But if there are any further attacks we will know what action to take," he said. 
Muslim leaders also counted their losses after the mayhem on Friday and Saturday, when churches and mosques were torched. 
Sabon Gari's Ahmadiya mosque was one of those burned. 
Mosque official Kazeem Ali, a Yoruba from the southwest, and chief Imam Mohammed Ibrahim, said they were doing a count of burned mosques and had already visited 16. Eight smaller prayer houses had also been destroyed. 
"We want to hold an emergency meeting so we can know what to do to the people who burned our mosque," Ali said. "Look at the damage. This is our school. How can we bring our children here?" 
The floor of the mosque was covered in rubble and the tin roof was a twisted wreck. Neighboring buildings were wrecked. 
Monday's fighting erupted after Kano residents spent a third night under curfew, with troops in armoured vehicles patrolling deserted streets dotted with scorched cars and houses. 
Residents said a number of people had been shot elsewhere by police or soldiers since the shoot-on-sight order was first given Saturday. A community leader told Reuters Sunday he knew of eight people rounded up by troops and shot. There was no independent confirmation of those accounts. 
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