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Managua (AFP)

At least five more people have died in the flashpoint city of Masaya during a night of clashes between police and anti-government protestors, a human rights group said Monday.

The preliminary toll included deaths between Sunday night and Monday morning, according to Alvaro Leiva, head of the Nicaraguan Association for the Protection of Human Rights (ANPDH).

The agency has identified just one of the victims so far, a 23-year-old teacher named Carlos Lopez, who was killed by a bullet in the thorax -- indicating "he was executed, no doubt, by snipers," Leiva said.

"There is a profound violation of human rights," in Masaya, said Leiva, of the city about 30 kilometers south of the capital.

Masaya's police chief Ramon Avellan, meanwhile, reported the death of a 22-year-old police officer in Masaya, who allegedly was killed when demonstrators attacked the city's police station.

It was unclear whether that death was included in the toll given by the ANPDH.

Residents in Masaya armed with homemade mortars have fought back against riot police and pro-government gangs in the city of just over 100,000 people.

They have constructed barricades against security forces with cobblestones, furniture, sheet metal and anything else available on nearly every street.

According to Leiva, protestors have captured an unspecified number of officers during the clashes, while police have arrested several demonstrators.

The wave of protests against President Daniel Ortega and his ruling party -- the Sandinista National Liberation Front -- erupted on April 18 and quickly turned violent.

The unrest has claimed at least 110 lives, according to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, fueling demands for Ortega to step down.

© 2018 AFP