Jakarta – Protests against a new state security bill in Indonesia claimed another life Tuesday when security forces shot dead a student in clashes in the Sumatra island city of Bandar Lampung, hospitals and reports said. At least 27 others were injured in the protest, which followed the deaths of at least seven people, one a student, in similar protests in Jakarta last week.

Tuesday's victim was shot dead in front of the Bandar Lampung University, where the clash broke out after security officials attempted to disperse hundreds of students trying to march to the local military headquarters, said Alira of the Bandar Lampung Legal Aid Institute.

Alira could not give further details saying she had yet to get a full report from the members of the institute's team gathering data on the incident.

But she said the students had started to march from Lampung University and had passed the Bandar Lampung University where they were joined by hundreds more students, when the clash took place.

"A male student was admitted here this morning. He was already dead on arrival," an employee of the emergency ward of the Abdul Muluk hospital in Bandar Lampung said by telephone. He could not give further details but said 11 other students were also brought to the hospital with various injuries.

Hospitals in Bandar Lampung contacted by telephone said at least 27 people were injured and rushed to the hospitals, including one in critical condition with a fractured skull and at least five with gunshot wounds.

The state Antara news agency identified the dead student as Muhamad Yusuf Rizal, 22, a student of the faculty of social and political sciences at Lampung University.

Rizal was the second student to die in protests against the security bill which was passed by the parliament last Thursday.

Two days of massive demonstrations against the bill in Jakarta left seven people dead, including a police officer, and a student who was shot by soldiers late Friday. More than 100 others were injured in running clashes in the capital.

President B.J. Habibie, citing the bloodshed, suspended his ratification of the bill until further notice. Antara said the Bandar Lampung clash broke out when a thick cordon of police and soldiers barred the way for the student march at Bandar Lampung university.

The students protestors, who had intended to march to the Lampung military command, were also demanding the military account for the death of the student in Jakarta.

A local journalist said the students were negotiating their passage with officers there when a shot was fired at close range and killed Rizal.

In the ensuing panic, students began to throw stones or anything they could find, while the security forces fired more shots and teargas. The clash, which broke out close to noon only subsided after dusk, the journalist said.

Antara quoted Lampung military spokesman Captain Muhammad Sufi as saying at least for four security personnel were injured in the clash and were rushed to the military hospital. Sufi denied there were bodies of other dead students at the military hospital.

Alira said some students had reported three deaths, while a city telephone operator said he had heard several telephone conversation that spoke of five killed. But none of the other deaths could be immediately confirmed, Alira said.

Despite calls by students and rights activists calling on the government to scrap the state security bill, Habibie has said the delay in ratification is only to allow time for the public to study its merits over a 1959 law it is to replace.

Critics of the security bill say it would give a military accused of mass human-rights violations across Indonesia, including in East Timor, sweeping powers.