(Reuters) -Crowds fled as gunfire rang out at a rally held by the leader of the M23 rebel group, Corneille Nangaa, in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern city of Bukavu on Thursday, residents said.

Nangaa told Reuters by phone that Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi had ordered the attack, without providing evidence. Nangaa said that he was not wounded and other senior members of the rebel grouping - which has battled Congo's army and seized swathes of territory in the east since the beginning of the year - were safe.

Democratic Republic of Congo's government and Rwandan-backed M23 rebels traded blame on Friday for several explosions at a rally in the rebel-held eastern city of Bukavu that killed 13 people and wounded scores of others the previous day.