Arrested Madagascar students charged after riots

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Ten students out of 104 arrested for rioting in northern Madagascar were charged on Saturday with destroying public property during protests over unpaid scholarships and power cuts, officials said.

The students, whose university is located in northern Antsiranana province, broke windows at the university, in secondary schools and at the premises of the ailing state energy firm JIRAMA during the protests on Thursday.

A police source said 20 students had been injured during the protests as well as seven security force members. Police arrested 104 students on Thursday in connection with the riots.

"Only 10 students have been sued in Court for the destruction of public goods from the 104 who had been detained," Lucien Victor Razakanirina, the Indian Ocean island's secretary of state for public security, told journalists.

The remaining 94 students were released late on Friday and returned home safely, he said.

Police and paramilitaries were patrolling the university campus and the town, where some city center shops were attacked during the protests, but the government said the situation was calm. Antsiranana is about 1,000 km (625 miles) from the capital.

By the time of the arrests, the students had been demonstrating for three days after not receiving their scholarship payments and because of the failure of the electricity supply in the university and the city.