MASAYA, NICARAGUA: Masaya, a city battling at the front lines of Nicaragua’s heated anti-government protests, once again became the scene of fierce street combat Saturday (Sunday in Manila), with at least one man dying of a bullet wound to the heart, the head of a top rights group in the country said.

Firearm bursts rang out in the city home to 100,000 people, where riots that started midday were growing increasingly violent as masked demonstrators wielding homemade mortars and slingshots struggled to fend off armed security forces.