Aid officials in Central African Republic have said that more than 500 people had been killed over the past week in sectarian fighting. Antoine Mbao Bogo with the local Red Cross said late on Tuesday that aid workers had collected 461 bodies across the capital of Bangui since Thursday.

That figure does not include the scores of Muslim victims whose bodies were brought to mosques for burial. Violence between Muslims and Christians have been going on in CAR, where France has deployed around 1,600 troops.

French forces are trying to disarm militias awash in automatic weapons in cities and towns, where would-be fighters are tough to distinguish from civilians. Two French soldiers were recently killed while carrying out operations against militias in Bangui.