Sierra Leone voters flock to polls despite gunfire in capital

Sierra Leone voters queuing in a school compound in Freetown yesterday to cast their ballots in the country's first democratic elections in more than a decade. During the day residents of the capital said that explosions from mortars and automatic weapons could be heard coming from the direction of Wilberforce army barracks. Nevertheless, huge crowds turned out to choose from 13 parties and presidential candidates. In the second city of Bo, youths danced through the streets with the severed head, feet and uniformed body of a supposed Revolutionary United Front rebel after a salvo of rocket-propelled grenades disrupted voting

Photograph:David Guttenfelder/AP