South Africa anti-foreigner violence spreads to centre of key port city

DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - A wave of anti-foreigner violence that has killed four people in and around the South African city of Durban in recent days, spread to the town centre on Tuesday, local media reported, with police firing rubber bullets to disperse angry crowds. Protests were held by both immigrants and locals, some brandishing hatchets and machetes, footage from Local TV news channel eNCA showed. Shops owned by foreigners in Durban, a key port on South Africa's Indian Ocean coast, have been looted and burnt during the violence. In 2008, more than 60 foreigners were killed in similar unrest as locals vented frustrations against their own problems, particularly the lack of jobs in the continent's most advanced economy. South African unemployment is officially around 25 percent but is widely believed to be much higher.