Jakarta – Five Indonesian students were injured when police opened fire on a protest against a rise in fuel prices, in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province, witnesses said.

Police used live ammunition and rubber bullets to disperse the some 1,000 protestors from the Indonesia Muslim University in Makassar, according to a student activist at the scene of the clash. "They were using two kinds of ammunitions, rubber and live bullets. I still have 10 cartridges with me," UMI student activist Iwan Anarkhi told AFP by telephone from Makassar.

Police moved in after the students beat a plainclothes officer who had been trying to pass himself off as a student at the protest, Anarkhi said.

He said that all five students were rushed to the police hospital in Makassar. Four were later released. Anarkhi said the injured policeman had also been taken to the same hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

The students later rampaged through the streets and burnt two cars, thought to be government vehicles. "Nobody was killed by the students, they were just aiming for the cars," Anarkhi said. The Makassar city police could not be immediately reached for comment.

The student protest was backed by hundreds of minibus drivers who went on strike over the government's decision to raise the price of fuel by an average of 12 percent.