Ambon – Muslim and Christian mobs fought street battles in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 18 people and injuring about 120, police and hospital workers said today. Riot police shot and killed some people, witnesses said. Mobs stabbed or beat others.

Workers at the city's Haulusy public hospital said they had received 11 bodies. They said about 120 people were injured. Lt. Col. Ghufron, Ambon police chief, said seven more bodies had been taken to a hospital adjacent to the main Al Fatah mosque.

Speaking at a news conference, Ghufron said eight security officers were being treated at the military hospital.

The official Antara news agency said many residents of Ambon's Mardika and Batu Merah neighborhoods – where bloody conflicts first erupted in January – sought shelter in churches, mosques, and military facilities.

Ghufron said men armed with makeshift weapons had erected barbed wire barricades in their neighborhoods.

Ten houses were set afire when fighting started late Monday in the town of Ambon, the capital of strife-torn Maluku province, 1,450 miles east of Jakarta. It was the latest in a string of religious clashes this year in the province, which was known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule.

The violence has been sparked by simmering resentment between Christians and Muslims. More than 300 people have died. Meanwhile, in the oil-rich western province of Aceh, police said today they were negotiating the release of two police officers and a civilian kidnapped by separatists.

Indonesia has deployed 11,000 troops to rout rebels who want to declare an independent Islamic republic in the province, about 1,100 miles northwest of Jakarta.