Ekurhuleni Metro police chief Robert McBride tried in vain to calm warring factions in the Ramaphosa informal settlement yesterday.

Ekurhuleni Metro police chief Robert McBride tried in vain to calm warring factions in the Ramaphosa informal settlement yesterday.

McBride, who is facing a drunken driving charges, has been recalled from special leave to help quell the xenophobic violence.

A man threw abottle, sparking rapid rubber-bullet gunfire from the police.

"I ask you please to leave the road you are marching on and go back to your homes. This will make it easy for the police to patrol," McBride was saying when the bottle ended his address.

Four people died in the Makause informal settlement in Primrose on Monday. By yesterday six people had been killed in Ramaphosa near Reiger Park.

Three men were found injured in a mealie field at Central Village Hostel in Reiger Park. They had serious head wounds.

McBride arrived in the settlement and tried to calm the crowd doing house-to-house searches for foreign nationals.

"We are monitoring the situation; it is tense but quiet," said police director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo.