HANOI -- Police in communist Vietnam dismissed as a "malicious rumor" a report from a Buddhist sect that one of its members was clubbed to death and its leader hurt in a clash involving police on Wednesday.

A statement from the U.S.-based overseas Hoa Hao Buddhist Association said Truong Van Duc was killed and sect chairman Le Quang Liem severely beaten in the clash in an Giang Province.

It said they and other Hoa Hao members were attacked by a mob of about 60 people carrying clubs and batons as they arrived by boat in Hoa Hao village, also called Phu My, to celebrate the 81st birthday of sect founder Huynh Phu So.

"Mr Truong Van Duc was clubbed to death on site," it said. "His body was thrown overboard and later recovered by the local authorities."

The statement said numerous Buddhists were seriously hurt by police clubbings and Le Quang Liem suffered "several major blows to his head and shoulders".

It said two women were severely hurt by clubs and stripped of their clothes to humiliate them while the whereabouts of several other people "tossed overboard" was not known.

Police said there was a clash involving Liem, his Hoa Hao followers and locals in which they had to intervene. But an officer said Duc had only been injured, not killed.

"He has been discharged from hospital. No one has been arrested or detained."

The officer said as many as 10,000 people had gathered for the ceremony. "Many of them were Hoa Hao followers, but there were also non-believers who were just curious," he said.

Another officer called the death report a "malicious rumor".

Earlier Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said the health of jailed Hao Hao Secretary General Ha Hai was "still normal" after the overseas Hoa Hao association said in a statement on Tuesday that he had been on hunger strike for 32 days.

(Reuter)