JOHANNESBURG - Three people in South Africa have been detained over the murders of two toddlers that have sparked riots in Diepsloot township, police have said.

The bodies of two girls, aged two and three, were found dumped in community toilets on Tuesday morning after they went missing on Saturday.

Protests then broke out with residents accusing the police of failing to protect the community.

President Jacob Zuma urged them not to take the law into their own hands. "These gruesome incidents of extreme torture and murder of our children do not belong to the society that we are continuously striving to build together,” South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper quoted Mr Zuma as saying.

"We condemn these murders in the strongest possible terms.”

Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said three people had been taken in for questioning and that police were also searching for a fourth person, the South African Press Association reports.

He said they were also investigating a possible link between the murders and that of a five-year-old girl found dead in the same area in September.

Agencies