Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from neighboring Muslim nations also went into hiding.
"We're afraid because who knows, maybe this is civil war," said one man, who would identify himself only as Ouedraogo, who was holed up in a mosque with about 30 others.
Ivorian troops pull back from Yamoussoukro. French troops in the city moved south to help restore calm in Abidjan.
(Luc Gnago -- Reuters)
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The Red Cross said it treated about 150 people wounded in the violence; most had been shot. The group had no figures on deaths. State television showed the bodies of what it said were five loyalists.
French armored vehicles moved into some residential neighborhoods, scattering rioters with volleys of tear gas and percussion grenades. At one spot, Ivorian military police watched, unmoving, as French forces confronted the crowds.
French helicopters also fired percussion grenades to break up mobs holding the bridges and besieging the French military base in Abidjan.
About 300 fresh French troops landed Sunday at the Abidjan airport, which had been in French hands since a gun battle with Ivorian forces a day earlier. About 300 more troops were on the way. Also, heavily armed French reinforcements moved south from Yamoussoukro to help restore calm in Abidjan.
The U.N. Security Council, in emergency session late Saturday, demanded an immediate halt to all military action in Ivory Coast, and France blamed Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo for the violence.
Gbagbo appealed for calm Sunday in his first public comments since the cease-fire was broken Thursday, asking "all demonstrators to go back to their homes." He thanked the army and loyalists, and accepted no blame for the bombing of the French post.
