Jakarta – At least three people were killed and 14 others wounded Friday when Indonesian security forces opened fire to quell a new outbreak of Moslem-Christian in the strife-torn Ambon city, a report said.

Two bodies from the violence in the Tantui area in the eastern outskirt of Ambon, were brought to a navy hospital and another to the Moslem Al Fatah hospital near the city's main mosque, the Antara news agency said. Antara quoted a police officer in Ambon as saying that security forces now had the situation under control.

Earlier Friday a military spokesman in Ambon said only one man had been killed and a policeman was injured in the clashes in Tantui. "Information from the field said one Moslem died, one policeman was injured in clashes in Tantui area," Lieutenant Colonel Iwa Budiman, the spokesman at the Maluku military command told AFP from Ambon. Budiman said the attack was likely to have been initiated by Moslems, adding that Christians had shown restraint.

Tantui is a mixed neighbourhood near the predominantly Moslem Batumerah area. "I suspect this incident was not provoked by the Christian side here," he said. But Budiman said he did not how the man had died.

The Media Indonesia daily said Friday one man was killed and four others wounded by gunshots in Tantui in the previous day when security forces opened fire to fend off a warring mobs.

The military spokesman said renewed Moslem-Christian violence since late July has killed 135 people and injured 389 others. The violence has also left hundreds of houses gutted.

More than 400 people have been killed in Ambon and other Maluku islands in Moslem-Christian unrest since the start of the year. Tens of thousands of people have fled to other provinces and there has been widespread destruction. The communal violence resurfaced in late July after a lull of a few months.