The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Nairobi

At least 30 people were burned to death Tuesday in a church in western Kenya where they had taken shelter from tribal clashes sparked by disputed presidential elections, police and Red Cross sources said.

"At least 30 have burned to death inside a church in the Kiamba area," a police commander told AFP.

The incident is likely to raise concerns that the wave of post-election violence that has now claimed nearly 300 lives in Kenya could develop into a full-blown ethnic conflict . "We have been informed that 42 have been taken to hospital with severe burns, but I am yet to confirm the death toll in the church," a Red Cross official told AFP.

A police commander said police had been given shoot-to-kill orders for Eldoret, the town where the Kenya Assemblies of God church was located.

Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) Secretary General Abbass Gulled, who earlier visited several affected areas in the Rift Valley, said the situation was dire.

"What I saw was unimaginable and indescribable," he told AFP.

Eldoret has witnessed some of the worst violence since Sunday's controversial re-election of President Mwai Kibaki triggered riots in strongholds of his defeated opponent Raila Odinga.

Earlier in the day, a top police commander told AFP the nature of attacks in the Rift Valley region, particularly Eldoret, could be described as "ethnic cleasing."

"One tribe is targeting another one in a fashion that can rightly be described as ethnic cleansing," said the commander, who declined to be identified.