riots

A protest on Wednesday calling for the Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to step down lapsed into major unrest and three days of rioting.

A police forensic team are on the ground and investigations are underway.

A spokesperson said they are yet to confirm the identities of the bodies.

Local reports say the remains are of some of the looters trapped inside the building.

Most of the rioting and looting took place in Chinatown, and RNZ Pacific correspondent there said only six buildings are left standing.

Photo RNZ Pacific 

Businesses, schools and even the Prime Minister's residence were set alight and looted by protesters during three straight days of civil unrest.

Now people are struggling to restock food supplies, and there are queues at ATMs and petrol stations as the extent of the crisis begins to take its toll.

Unrest broke out on Wednesday when a peaceful protest calling on Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to step down turned violent and quickly spiralled out of control of the local police.

France has strict rules about the size of discounts that retailers can put on products outside of official sales periods.

Last week, shoppers at Intermarché shops jostled to buy heavily discounted chocolate and hazelnut spread.

It had been discounted by 70% - from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40.

Police were called when people began fighting and pushing one another.

"They are like animals. A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand," one customer told French media.

The transfer takes the number of detainees sent to the maximum-security Casuarina Prison to 20.

Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection would not confirm how many of those who had been transferred were New Zealanders.