Scared beauties head for UK
2002-11-23 10:40
London - Terrified Miss World contestants are preparing to fly into Britain after more than 100 people were killed during rioting over the pageant in Nigeria.
Organisers have moved the event to London after the three day riots, which also injured more than 500 people.
Organisers decided to cancel the global contest after fighting spread from the northern city of Kaduna to Abuja, the venue for this year's pageant.
The bloodshed was sparked by an "offending" article published in a national newspaper last week.
The paper backed the contest and claimed that had the prophet Muhammad been alive he would have wanted to marry one of the beauty queens.
Stella Din, a spokesperson for the event, said: "We have decided in the interests of the girls and in the interests of Nigeria that we should move to London for December 7."
"The girls will be on their way back today," she said.
Trouble flared when Muslims gathered after prayers outside the national mosque in the capital before marching through the town chanting "God is Great", burning cars, churches and houses.
They also torched the newspaper's offices.
Police firing tear gas restored calm in Abuja within hours.
But the melee in Kaduna, a religiously mixed city of several million people, continued in defiance of a round-the-clock police curfew.