One villager was killed and nine others injured in continuous clashes between two feuding villages in the southernmost province of Hainan, sources said Wednesday.

The fight between residents of the Baoshang and Gancheng villages in Dongfang City started Monday night. A clash at around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday left one dead and six others injured.

A 32-year-old Baoshang resident named Zhang Ji died Wednesday after being stabbed in the head and arms during the fight, said Qin Guangxin, a doctor with Dongfang City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Another three were hurt Monday and Tuesday, according to the information office of Dongfang City government.

The Hainan Provincial Public Security Department dispatched more than 300 policemen to maintain order and hunt for the suspects instigating the violence. Some 100 local officials have been trying to calm residents, but both sides were still confronting as of 11 p.m.

More than 100 shops in the Gancheng Township seat, located in Gancheng Village, were closed. Broken bricks and pieces of wood were seen in the street.

Power went off and schools were closed in the township seat, said Qin Guohua, Party chief of Gancheng Township.

Yang Bin, head of Gancheng Township police station, and his deputy Fang Xiaohong, were dismissed Tuesday, according to the information office.

Gancheng Village has had a troubled relationship with Baoshang Village because of a land dispute which has lasted almost eighty years. There have been frequent brawls between residents of both villages -- each with a population of about 10,000. The latest has been one of the most violent in recent decades.

It came two days after hundreds of residents of Gancheng Village smashed vehicles and set fire to the government building and police station in Gancheng Township. They were protesting the failure of local government and police to maintain public security.

Gancheng residents have been unhappy with local police because four children so far this year have been attacked by unidentified people. They believed the assailants were from Baoshang. Police have made little progresses in those cases.

A middle school brawl between two students from the villages became the last straw and resulted in Monday's protest, said Fu Bo, chief publicity official of Dongfang City.

On Tuesday, five villagers from Gancheng went to Baoshang at 11:30 p.m. and set fire to a hotel and residences, said a source on the condition of anonymity. Baoshang residents put out the fires before they spread and beat up one of the villagers from Gancheng. He was seriously injured in the attack.

The four-story hotel on the border of the two villages was destroyed by the fire.

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2009)