ONE child died on Friday after police teargassed demonstrators in Chitipa, northern Malawi, who were demanding a new road, witnesses said on Saturday. The 10-year-old girl died from choking on the tear gas after the panicking demonstrators ran helter-skelter leaving her unattended, the witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity. About 5_000 people were marching peacefully to demand that the government immediately and unconditionally start building the main road from Karonga to Chitipa, some 255km from the northern city of Mzuzu. Chitipa, the northern-most district of Malawi bordering Tanzania, has been cut off for years from the rest of the nation’s economic activity because of poor road connections. – AFP