Jakarta – At least two people have been killed and several injured in a fresh outbreak of violence on the strife-torn Indonesian island of Ambon, witnesses said on Saturday.

One man was gunned down when the occupants of a car opened fire on residents manning a civilian roadblock at Silo church about 2.00am on Saturday.

"The people inside the car refused to open the window – instead, they got out and fired wildly into the people before they left," Reverand Patinaya from the Maranatha Christian refuge told Reuters from Ambon, 2,300 km (1,440 miles) east of Jakarta.

Security forces had fired warning shots to disperse a crowd stoning Silo church on Friday, which was also hit by two petrol bombs.

More than 200 people have died in and around Ambon in two months of communal fighting between Christian Ambonese and Moslem migrants from elsewhere in the vast archipelago.

Late Friday night, an 83-year-old man was stabbed to death as he walked through a Moslem neighbourhood, a local reporter said.

"People are scared to go out alone now, especially after the incident yesterday," he told Reuters. Ambon city was quiet but tense on Saturday.