AMMAN, Nov 24: At least one person was killed and seven others wounded, including a policeman, as fresh clashes erupted on Sunday in the southern Jordanian town of Maan which had been shaken by fighting between religious hardliners and the army earlier this month, witnesses said.

The men were shot when a gunfight broke out following a quarrel between residents and police stationed outside the mayor’s offices, witnesses said.

The number of casualties was unclear, with some witnesses claiming two men had been shot dead, while others said only one was killed.

Some witnesses put the number of wounded at eight and others said seven.

“One of the injured is in a critical case but has not died,” a Maan resident contacted by telephone said.

The army immediately imposed a curfew on the flashpoint town as the security situation remained confused and police deployed reinforcements in the town, 215kms south of Amman, the witnesses said.

Six people were killed, including a soldier and a policeman, in clashes between security forces and gunmen earlier this month in Maan as the authorities launched a crackdown on a gang of armed bandits.

Around 130 people were arrested in the crackdown, eight of them foreigners.

But the alleged ringleader Mohammad Shalabi, alias Abu Sayyaf, who belongs to a radical group still remains at large.— AFP