Antananarivo - An uneasy calm descended on Madagascar Tuesday, a day after deadly riots in the capital Antananarivo left at least three dead.

According to broadcaster Antsiva, hundreds of demonstrators set fires and looted throughout Monday night after police and security forces withdrew from earlier defensive postures.

Appeals from the government and churches fell on deaf ears.

Schools and other educational facilities across the city remained closed Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Antananarivo Monday to protest the rule of President Marc Ravalomanana, whom they accuse of being anti-democratic.

The demonstration in the city's May 13 square was called by Antananarivo's mayor and Ravalomanana's rival, Andry Rajoelina, on the first day of an open-ended general strike.

Monday's demonstration was the latest in a series of opposition protests that began after the government shut down a television station owned by the mayor in December.

On Saturday, a similar march drew tens of thousands of people.

Rajoelina accuses the president, who was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2006 and has vast business interests, of being out of touch with ordinary Malagasy people and of trampling their rights.

Ravalomanana owns the country's biggest food company, a radio station, a television station, two newspapers and a construction company.

Rajoelina was elected mayor in December 2007 in a landslide victory over the ruling Tiako i Madagasikara (I love Madagascar) party candidate.

The government shut down the mayor's popular Viva television station after it broadcast an interview with ex-president Didier Ratsiraka.

Rajoelina responded in January by inaugurating a Democracy Square in Antananarivo in the presence of 20,000 supporters. (dpa)