KHARTOUM, Sudan – Violent mobs surged again into the streets of Sudan’s capital Tuesday, a day after 36 people died in riots sparked by the death of Sudanese vice president and former southern rebel leader John Garang.

The initial violence Monday was blamed on Garang supporters from the Christian and animist south who blamed his death in a helicopter crash on Sudan’s Muslim-dominated government, but both northerners and southerners reportedly staged attacks Tuesday after a quiet morning.

Arab gangs invaded some neighborhoods heavily populated by southerners on the outskirts of Khartoum and attacked people in the streets and raided homes, said William Ezekiel, managing editor of the Khartoum Monitor. He said some people had been shot to death.

“The Arabs are attacking them, entering their houses and looking for southerners,” said Ezekiel, whose newspaper focuses largely on southern issues.

“It’s a reaction to the reaction from yesterday: `Where is the government? Where are the police?'” he said.

A senior U.N. official in Khartoum said angry southerners from camps outside the capital for people displaced by the long war in southern Sudan attacked the Omdurman area. He said a Muslim imam had been slain.

“The situation is turning religious and that will be even more dangerous,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

The reports of deaths Tuesday could not be independently confirmed. Officials said Monday’s riots resulted in 36 people being killed and about 300 injured.

The government renewed the 6 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew first imposed Monday night, and by midafternoon downtown streets were nearly empty. An occasional siren could be heard.

After Monday’s rampage, the government and Garang’s own Sudan People’s Liberation Movement said his death was an accident and dismissed talk of a plot as they sought to keep alive the fragile north-south peace deal Garang championed.

President Bush said Monday that the United States remained committed to the peace process in Sudan and urged its people to refrain from violence, describing Garang as a “visionary leader and peacemaker.”

Two senior State Department officials were heading for Sudan to tell leaders in Khartoum and southern Sudan the peace process must proceed.

Garang and 13 other people died Saturday when a helicopter crashed into a mountain in southern Sudan in bad weather.

Garang, from southern Sudan, became the country’s first vice president last month as part of the U.S.-backed peace deal that ended a two-decade-long civil war between his rebel force and the army of Sudan’s Islamic-oriented government based in Khartoum.

The charismatic Garang was hailed for helping seal the peace deal, particularly across southern Sudan and among the several million southern refugees living in Khartoum, many of whom took part in Monday’s violence.

Three days of national mourning were declared following his death, but it was not immediately clear when or where his funeral will be held.

The SPLM named Garang’s longtime deputy, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to succeed him as head of the movement and president of south Sudan. Kiir will also likely be Sudan’s first vice president, according to the January peace agreement that says the SPLM leader will hold that position, said Kenyan Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a mediator in the peace talks.

Associated Press writer Mohamed Osman contributed to this report.