Ambon – Indonesian soldiers opened fire on a church in the ravaged island of Ambon killing 24 people, the priest who buried most of the dead told Reuters Thursday.

Members of the elite Kostrad unit carried out the attack, which occurred Wednesday, Andreas Lopulalan said by telephone. The troops opened fire on a church just outside Ambon city where some 50 Christians had taken shelter, he said.

"I buried 21 of the victims this afternoon in the backyard of the church. They were all in the same hole," said Lopulalan, head of the Moluccas Protestant Church of Galala, the township where the attack occurred.

He added that before the shooting the Kostrad members set fire to a Pentecostal church opposite his church. The church was partly destroyed, he said. Police in Ambon Thursday denied that the incident had taken place.

Ambon city, some 2,300 km east of Jakarta, is the capital of the Moluccas or spice islands where religious clashes between Christians and Muslims have killed at least 450 people this year.