Jakarta – Renewed Moslem-Christian clashes in the riot-torn Indonesian city of Ambon reportedly claimed five more lives Monday as an attack was reported on Christian places of worship and a school on Java island.

The first two deaths in Ambon were reported early Monday when two Christians on their way to work were stopped at a Moslem roadblock in the Air Salobar area of the city, a police spokesman said.

One victim was an ambulance driver, a Red Cross official in Ambon said.

Three more people, all of them Moslems, were killed in Paso village 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the city center on Monday afternoon, local journalists said.

"They were hacked to death by our Christian brothers," a photographer told AFP by phone, adding that a bus and a truck were also torched.

Paso residents, mostly Christians, were stopping cars and buses for random checks. It was unclear how the situation turned violent.

An officer at the State Police Academy in Paso was unable to confirm the deaths but said many warning shots were fired.

Residents said the Monday killings in the Air Selobar area followed a clash between residents the previous evening when small explosions had been heard.

"The situation was under control last night after security forces fired rounds of warning shots but then this morning's attack made the situation tense again here," a local photographer said.

In separate incidents overnight and early Monday, residents in Ambon's Batu Gajah village torched an empty utility vehicle and later dumped it into a river. Residents of Batu Gantung village torched homes Monday morning, the reporter said.

Children who had returned to school this week following the arrival of 3,000 more troops ran home following the torching in Batu Gantung, the photographer said. All offices and shops immediately shut their doors.