Police Allegedly Beat 4 S. African Squatters

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa —  Police in the black township of Soweto allegedly beat at least three women and a man Tuesday in an attempt to evict them from their squatter shacks and roughed up a CBS television crew, witnesses said.

Residents and witnesses also said police, armed with rifles, tore down two shacks in the Chicken Farm squatter settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg and that at least five shots were fired. No injuries were reported.

Police denied the claims of beatings. A spokesman said that police vehicles owned by the Soweto Town Council had been stoned when they moved in to demolish the shacks but that no arrests were made.