the murders, fires and looting spawned by the Rodney King verdict on Wednesday.

Drive-by shootings, a constant smell of smoke and an ever-present threat of violence are among the hazards residents have faced since the racial turmoil erupted in south-central Los Angeles.

Yesterday more than 30 people were reported dead and over 1,300 injured while an estimated $500 million in damage has been caused throughout the US in reaction to the acquittal of four white Police officers in the beating case.

A Bermudian freshman at the University of Southern California, 18-year-old Joel Froomkin, son of former Attorney General Saul Froomkin, is right at the centre of the city's violence.

"It hasn't been pleasant. The university is in a really bad area and living here, we'd gotten used to the sirens and the gunshots every so often. But this is nuts,'' he said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I can see helicopters flying all over the place. It's not exactly a war zone, it's just an extremely tense environment.'' Mr. Froomkin said only hours after the jury reached its not guilty verdict on the highly publicised case, the rioting began.

"We figured something would happen but we didn't expect this much,'' he added. "On Wednesday we were hearing Police sirens and fire trucks every two minutes and it got worse as the night went on. The smell of smoke is everywhere.

"Across the street a guy was walking and someone just drove by and shot him in the leg. Our Post Office was on fire and three trucks drove past it because there were other fires they had to get to first. A bunch of mini-malls in the area were set on fire and there's plenty of looting. It's really scary.

Nobody was prepared for it.'' The acting major said people were mainly burning federal buildings. He added that although $1.7 million was set aside by Police as overtime payment in expectation of some violence, they were not prepared to deal with so much violence.

"Everybody is frightened right now, black and white students. It's not a black case, it's not a white case. It's fear and we want it to stop. Violence is violence. There may be a reason for it but there's no justification. You don't just destroy your home.'' Mr. Froomkin said various street gangs were responsible for most of the violence with younger kids joining in as an excuse to loot.

He said there had been no on-campus protests and only one building had been set on fire.

Mr. Froomkin said the University, fearing for students' safety, shut down at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

"They wouldn't let people in or out,'' he said. "At 8.30 p.m., they began evacuating and took every person from campus housing into one large complex.

There were about 2,000 of us in one building.'' He said one of the more scary aspects was that the room where they were sleeping was without television.

"We didn't know what was going on,'' he said. "It's hard because there are always going to be rumours.'' Mr. Froomkin said at 5 p.m. on Thursday, students were told to leave if they could find somewhere safe to go but unless they had a plane ticket, they would be arrested once on the street.

"I expect it will be over by Sunday. Because it's the weekend, there are lots of people around with time on their hands which is why I think it might go on for that long.

"I haven't met anybody that wasn't shocked. I can understand what the jury says if they say that a lot of blows didn't hit him but I still have to wonder how in any way, shape or form that verdict could've come through.'' At the University of California, 18-year-old Bermudian Kimberley Robinson said there had been mainly peaceful protests.

"A couple people I know got arrested,'' she said. "Looters came late on Thursday night but people boarded up most of the stores in anticipation that the violence might spread to the area.

"For a lot of people, it's the only way they know to express how they feel.'' Meanwhile in Atlanta, Miss Susannah Vesey, a columnist for The Atlanta Constitution , said the problems began in that city when a peaceful university protest was joined by other kids.

"Things got out of hand,'' she said. "Huge mobs started running all over the place. A number of people were attacked on the street, black-owned businesses were planting signs in their windows and people were pulling white people out of trucks and beating them up.'' Miss Vesey said the mobs overran the underground shopping plaza, turning over shopping wagons and asking if stores were black-owned.

At Macy's, one of the city's largest department stores, patrons were rushed to the upper floors of the building after looters broke through the windows.

Miss Vesey said a number of media people were attacked and a photographer at her newspaper required 18 stitches to his forehead.

"It's really quite frightening,'' she said. "I would say a very small percentage of the black people here took part in the rioting. I could hear at work that a number of people surrounded the building and could see a bunch of people on the ground handcuffed.

"Everybody was horrified at the verdict,'' she said, "blacks and whites. I haven't met anybody who understands how they arrived at the verdict.'' JOEL FROOMKIN -- It's an extremely tense environment'.