Fearful Immigrants Shut Johannesburg Shops as Anti-foreigner Violence Rages

Immigrants in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa's biggest commercial city, shut their shops on Wednesday as a wave of anti-foreigner violence that has killed four people near the city of Durban threatened to spread, police said.
South Africa has erected safe camps in Durban, a key port on South Africa's Indian Ocean coast, for fleeing immigrants, whose shops were looted and burnt in the two-week old violence.
There were no reports of looting or violence in Johannesburg, the epicenter of the 2008 xenophobic attacks that killed more than 60 people.
"Foreigners in Johannesburg have been observed closing their shops. We don't know why but police are keeping an eye on the situation," Johannesburg police spokesman Wayne Minnaar said.