Lagos is under a round-the-clock curfew enforced by police roadblocks, as smoke rises from a flashpoint area in Nigeria's biggest city where soldiers shot at protesters the previous evening, witnesses say.
Nigeria's Lagos state governor said on Wednesday that one person had died at a Lagos hospital after a shooting in the suburb of Lekki.
Governor Babjide Sanwo-Olu said in a tweet that a person had died at Reddington Hospital in Lagos due to blunt force trauma to the head.
"This is an isolated case. We are still investigating if he was a protester," he said.
In a televised speech earlier in the day, Sanwo-Olu described the shooting as people protested against police brutality on Tuesday night as among the "darkest hours from our history as a people."
The governor said 30 people were hurt in the shooting at a toll gate in Lekki, a focal point of nearly two weeks of nationwide protests.
Four witnesses said soldiers had fired the bullets and at least two people had been shot. One said he saw soldiers remove bodies.
Authorities imposed the curfew on Lagos on Tuesday after the governor said the protests had turned violent.
President Muhammadu Buhari, appealing for "understanding and calm", said on Wednesday he was committed to providing justice for victims of brutality, and that police reforms also demanded by the demonstrators were gathering pace.
His statement, disseminated by his spokesman, did not refer to the shooting at the Lekki toll gate, from where a witness saw smoke rising on Wednesday.
Thousands of Nigerians have demonstrated in protests that initially focused on a police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), that rights groups had for years accused of extortion, harassment, torture and murders.
The unit was disbanded on October 11 but the protests have persisted with calls for law enforcement reforms.
In a broadcast, Sanwo-Olu said incidents of arson and "destruction" had been reported in Lagos on Wednesday morning, and he urged Buhari to intervene in investigating what happened at Lekki.
People who attended Tuesday's protest there described being shot at by soldiers.
Inyene Akpan, 26, a photographer, said more than 20 soldiers arrived at the toll gate and opened fire. He saw two people being shot.
Witness Akinbosola Ogunsanya said he saw around 10 people being shot, and soldiers removing bodies. Another witness, Chika Dibia, said soldiers hemmed in people as they shot at them.
Australian Associated Press
