Despite efforts to contain it anti-immigrant violence is spreading in South Africa. The unrest that began in Johannesburg erupted overnight in Capetown, the country's second biggest city and its main tourist centre.

Hundreds of African migrants were evacuated from a squatter camp there after mobs attacked homes and shops belonging to Zimbabweans and Somalis. At least 42 people have been killed and more than 25,000 driven from their homes in the past two weeks.

Locals accuse them of taking jobs and fuelling crime. More than 500 people have been arrested.

The government's measures to quell the violence include extra police patrols in shantytowns with the army placed on standby.

President Thabo Mbeki has urged the mobs to remember that for years South Africans were given refuge in the countries of those now being attacked.