Dili – At least one person was killed and another seriously injured after a clash between hundreds of members of pro-independence and anti-independence groups in East Timor, police and local residents said Saturday.

"The clash occurred this morning in Ermera," Lt. Col. Herry Gultom, the Ermera police chief, told Kyodo News by telephone from the town, about 35 kilometers southwest of the East Timor capital of Dili.

Gultom refused to say whether there were casualties during the clash, but a Catholic priest in the district said at least one person died and another was seriously injured and being treated at the Dili General Hospital.

Meanwhile, anti-independence groups in the former Portuguese colony held their second gathering "to consolidate power and strength" in the town of Viqueque, about 200 km east of Dili, involving about 2,000 people, their spokesman in Jakarta, Domingos Policarpo, told Kyodo News.

The first rally took place Thursday in the town of Maliana, about 140 km west of Dili. Another gathering is scheduled for Sunday in the town of Zumalai, about 150 km south of the East Timor capital.

The Saturday gathering was held in response to a call Monday by jailed East Timor rebel leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao for pro-independence supporters to "protect themselves" from attacks by armed pro-Indonesia militias or the Indonesian armed forces.