Security forces killed up to 25 people in Madagascar yesterday when they opened fire on an anti-government protest outside the presidential palace, a senior police officer at the scene said.

Doctors said about 180 people arrived at the city's main hospital. Many were bloodied and some lay groaning on stretchers in the corridors.

"The crowd was walking peacefully, then all of a sudden the military opened fire," Jocelyn Ratolojanahary said at the hospital, nursing a heavily bandaged hand. She said she saw several bodies lying back at the palace.

Two weeks of civil unrest stoked by a power struggle between President Marc Ravalomanana and the sacked mayor of the capital, Andry Rajoelina, have killed some 125 people and worried multinational firms investing in the giant Indian Ocean island.

Rajoelina accused the government of murdering civilians. "The people were not armed, they only had their courage," he said on his private Viva Radio after the shootings. "The popular resistance will continue. The protests will not stop here".

President Ravalomanana blamed the opposition leader for the violence and said what had happened was "scandalous and intolerable".

The opposition accuses the president of being a dictator. Ravalomanana, who has galvanised the world's fourth largest island's reputation as a safe haven for tourists, denies it and has called for dialogue to end the bloodshed.