Jakarta – At least three people were killed and 100 houses torched in pockets of Indonesian violence reported Saturday.

On the island province of Maluku two people were killed and three injured when a mob of Christians attacked a Moslem settlement, Sergeant Major Yuleini told AFP by phone.

Reports reaching the provincial capital of Ambon said one of the victims was beheaded in the Friday clash, a local journalist said.

In East Nusatenggara province in West Timor, one person was killed and 100 houses torched in a communal clash, the Indonesian Observer daily said.

A district police official told AFP by phone that the cause of Thursday's fighting between residents of two villages was not known and police were investigating it.

"We have heard of a death. But I can't say anything until my men return from there. Communication is very difficult and we don't have adequate facilities," Major Petrus Kalumbang said.

Kalumbang said 35 police and eight army personnel had been sent to the scene, a remote area 60 kilometers from the main town in Manggarai district, and they had managed to quell the rioting.

The Maluku islands, and East Kalimantan province in Indonesian Borneo have been rocked by communal and sectarian violence in the past two months, leaving more than 400 people killed and a trail of destruction.

More than 100 people have been killed in sectarian violence in the Southeast Maluku district in the past week. The carnage has also forced tens of thousands of people – mainly migrant Madurese settlers in East Kalimantan, and Moslem settlers from Sulawesi island in the Maluku islands – to flee the areas.