Looters ransacked shops and supermarkets in riots that left one dead late Tuesday after police demanding a pay rise refused to patrol Argentina's second largest city, Cordoba.
The victim, a 20-year-old male, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead on arrival at Cordoba's San Roque hospital, the hospital's director Daniel Mercado told a local radio station Wednesday.
Looters, some on motorcycles, ransacked stores and supermarkets as they took advantage of the absence of police, local TV footage showed.
Some 3,000 police in Cordoba had refused to leave their police stations to go on patrol Tuesday.
Officers want higher salaries and better working conditions, said a lawyer for the police, Miguel Ortiz Pellegrini.
Provincial governor Jose Manuel de la Sota accused the government of President Cristina Kirchner of ignoring his pleas for help.
Kirchner's chief of staff, Jorge Capitanich, said the provincial government had "exclusive" responsibility for the situation.
"The situation must be monitored to see what mechanisms of cooperation are possible, but we can't substitute responsibilities," Capitanich said.
De la Sota, who returned from Panama to deal with the situation, is part of a dissident faction of the ruling Peronist party.
Cordoba province has 22,000 officers for a population of 3.5 million, the largest in Argentina after Buenos Aires province. Cordoba is a big farm producer and a lure for tourists who come to enjoy its countryside.
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