Tempers flared before 9pm when two villagers from Pang Kar Tsuen, across the main road from the Sek Kong tented camp, were injured in an attack by a group of Vietnamese armed with clubs and iron bars.

About 50 young men and other residents armed with wooden clubs then chased the Vietnamese into a nearby military camp.

The villagers said many women living in the area were frightened of returning home after dark because of the Vietnamese, who frequently left the centres and roamed around the neighbourhood.

'We had been good to them and even gave them cigarettes and soft drinks, but they in turn attacked our villagers,' they said.

At the same time, the government was drafting laws that would mean fines of $5,000 and a jail sentence of up to six months for inmates who escaped from detention centres. It would also prohibit Vietnamese from entering the centres and throwing food and supplies over the fences.

The clashes came as another 113 Vietnamese sailed into the territory, bringing the total number of boat people to 39,808. In all, there are 53,356 Vietnamese asylum seekers.

In a dawn raid by 100 police officers a day earlier, 26 Sai Kung protesters were dragged off the High Island detention-centre construction site, where they had been camped for nine days. They were not arrested. That night hundreds of villagers gathered at a monument commemorating Sai Kung residents who died during World War II to denounce the police action and set up another protest camp.

Their eviction followed an unsuccessful meeting on August 5 with six officials who were jeered and abused as they tried to persuade the residents that the site posed minimal security and pollution risks.

After two hours, the meeting ended amid angry shouts of 'shame' and 'liars'.

The protesters displayed new banners including one that read: 'Hongkong people don't fight Hongkong people', echoing the slogans mourning the Beijing crackdown of June 4.

Before the meeting, 50 residents at a time took turns to camp at the site in protest. Residents proposed three alternative sites - Tai Chik Sha, Siu Chik Sha and Tung Lung Chau - that were rejected. By the end of the week, 10 districts including Sha Tin, Tuen Mun Yuen Long Tai Po, Shamshuipo and Wan Chai supported the Sai Kung residents.

On the same day of the meeting, correctional officers said they had been threatened with violence by boat people, many of whom said they would rather face prison than be repatriated to Vietnam.

Concern over security increased on August 4, as up to 500 of the 7,000 boat people broke out of the Sek Kong centre. The escapees were mostly women and children, who climbed through a double fence to talk to other Vietnamese outside the camp.

Pressures were greatest at the Chi Ma Wan centre, which holds 3,550 boat people, more than 1,000 of whom would be repatriated to Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the number of Vietnamese boat people crowded on Tai Ah Chau, part of the Soko Islands, had also topped 6,000. An army vessel stepped up trips to supply water to two visits a day. The maximum number was 5,000.

'We live like animals here - we have very little,' said Nguyen Hong, 27, who arrived more than a month ago. There is no sanitation, shelter or fresh water, with most refugees exposed to the summer heat.