REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BUENOS AIRES -- Seven people died in overnight looting in northern Argentina sparked by a police strike, bringing the toll to nine since the job action began a week ago, authorities said Tuesday.

Four fatalities were reported in the northeastern province of Chaco, with three others in the provinces of Jujuy and Tucuman, local government officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Riots and looting first erupted in the city of Cordoba some 700 kilometers (430 miles) north of the capital Buenos Aires a week ago, after police demanding higher wages and better working conditions refused to go on patrol there.

So far, the strikes -- which have spread to about 10 provinces -- are being observed by provincial forces and not the 60,000-strong federal police.

Hundreds of people have been injured and dozens arrested.

"The situation (overnight) was totally out of control. We were close to a massacre," Chaco Governor Juan Carlos Bacileff said.

By Tuesday, the situation had calmed down but authorities feared looting would break out again as night fell.

In Chaco, three civilians and a 35-year-old police officer were killed, according to a local official.

The three civilians had taken part in looting in the provincial capital Resistencia, the official said. The police officer died from injuries sustained while he was protecting a supermarket.

In Jujuy, the fatalities occurred in the towns of San Pedro and Perico, another official told AFP.

In Tucuman province, a man who was shot, suffering "serious liver, kidney and chest wounds," died after surgery overnight, Zenon Hospital chief Diego Eskenazi told the Todo Noticias channel.

He said 35 people were treated at his facility. Most had minor injuries but some suffered more serious gunshot wounds, he added.

The looters have targeted stores without security, stealing everything from clothes to alcohol, to televisions and other electronics.

Governors in Cordoba, Neuquen, San Juan, Catamarca and Rio Negro provinces have defused police protests by doubling and tripling police salaries.

But a debate has emerged over the rights of police officers to go on strike. A law stipulates that Argentine citizens can't be deprived of essential services but without specifying security, while the constitution guarantees the right to strike.

Argentine cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich has said the violence was an attempt to discredit democratic rule, as the country marks the 30th anniversary of the restoration of democracy.

He alleged the looting was "not spontaneous but organized" by "groups that want to provoke chaos and panic."

Looting has occurred repeatedly in Argentina since the late 1980s. For sociologist Enrique Zuleta Puceiro, the pillaging is an expression of social tension.

Inflation is running at a rate of 30 percent a year, according to private analysts, fueling unease among the population.

In 2001, the country was hit by a wave of violence amid a serious economic crisis.

Just a year ago, supermarkets in several cities were looted.

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