Clashes between the former president Pinochet's supporters and their opponents erupted in Chile nationwide following his death on Sunday.

According to police some 5,000 demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday afternoon and evening in Santiago and around 1,000 across the country were also demonstrating.

Some 10 protestors, who were celebrating the Pinochet's death, were arrested and six policemen injured during a clashes with demonstrators.

Pinochet's supporters and opponents gathered around the Santiago Military Hospital where the former president died. On Sunday afternoon Pinochet's supporters attacked passing vehicles around the hospital with stones and Chilean police were deployed to keep order.

Thousands of Chileans danced in the streets of the capital to celebrate his death and police fired water cannon and used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. They threw metal bars and bottles at the police and lit bonfires on downtown streets.

Small-scale violence erupted when police tried to stop a crowd of more than 1,000 people marching down the capital's main Alameda avenue. Police used water cannon and gas to stop the crowd while the demonstrators threw stones and bottles.

On behalf of the Chilean government, Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe, urged on Sunday night that citizens keep calm and explained that strict security measures would be in force in Santiago at night.

Pinochet, who came to power through a US-supported coup in 1973, died Sunday at the Military Hospital a week after suffering a heart attack. He'll be buried with military honors but without a state funeral or national mourning.

Pinochet stood accused of four crimes. The Caravan of Death Case, referring to the kidnap and murder of two personal guards of Salvador Allende, the left-wing president deposed by Pinochet in the coup of September 11, 1973, two other major human rights abuse cases and another of allegedly embezzling US$27 million of public money. 

In 2000 Chile's Supreme Court stripped Pinochet of his presidential immunity paving the way for a trial. However, two years later the same court dropped the charges, saying the former president was too ill to stand trial.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2006)