One other person was wounded in Friday's attack in Lahaj region, part of South Yemen before the two parts of the country united in 1990, according to the report.

Yasser al-Yamani, deputy governor of Lahaj, said the attack targeting people from the north living in the south was the work of "outlaws who call themselves organisers of the southern rebellion."

There have been sporadic clashes between police and protesters in the south over the past few months. At least 21 people have been killed, five of them policemen, since the protests erupted in late April.

The government has blamed the unrest on southern rebels demanding secession, but many in the impoverished south have been protesting against bad living conditions.

Local people feel they are the victims of discrimination by the north and have received inadequate economic help.

On Tuesday Yemeni police arrested hundreds of separatist activists in the southern city of Aden, as they stifled efforts to mark the 15th anniversary of the end of the civil war, witnesses said.

Socialists who formerly ruled the south led a secession bid in 1994 that sparked a two-month civil war before the uprising was crushed by northern forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

AFP