Agence France Presse

Ambon, April 26:

Twenty-two people have been killed and scores badly injured in a major outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon, medical staff said today.

The violence which flared yesterday after a parade by Christian separatists was the worst since a pact in February 2002 ended three years of sectarian fighting in which some 5,000 people died. Hundreds of extra police and troops have been rushed to the waterfront city in the Maluku islands.

Rivai Ambon, director, Al Fatah hospital, said that 15 people had died at the hospital or had been brought dead since yesterday. Six of them died today, he said, and 60 were still receiving treatment.