Police have been patrolling university campuses

He also said a number of police vehicles had been damaged.

One police Land Rover, carrying three armed officers, careered off the road and hit a brick wall in Zomba as the driver failed to negotiate a sharp bend as angry students threw bricks and stones at it.

All the three officers sustained injuries.

Mr Soko said the latest violence took place on Sunday night when students looted a department store in the central district of Kasungu

"Police had to use teargas to control the situation," he said.

He also said that a number of government vehicles and at least four others belonging to private citizens were smashed during the student riots.

Questions

University of Malawi chancellor, Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi, is yet to comment on the students riots and the death of Phiri.

Muluzi is the university's chancellor

But university vice-chancellor, Professor David Rubadiri, has condemned what he termed police heavy-handedness in quelling the rioting.

"We want to find out whether police were justified to use live bullets in quelling the student protests," he said.

Rubadiri said he will seek a meeting with the president to brief him on the week of unprecedented unrest.

Trouble begun last Tuesday when university students joined ordinary citizens in the eastern university town of Zomba to protest at the rising cost of living, arbitrary arrests and the unexplained deaths in police custody of a number of government critics.

Police resorted to breaking up the demonstrations using teargas, rubber bullets and live ammunition.