Clashes erupted in a gold-mining region of northeastern DR Congo on Tuesday where troops were deployed after three Chinese nationals went missing, military and local sources said.

The military had announced the deployment on Monday in the vicinity of Djugu in Bunia province.

Military spokesman Jules Ngongo said that three men working along with many others for a Chinese mining company may have been abducted by militiamen of CODECO, one of dozens of armed groups in the region.

CODECO -- for Cooperative for the Development of the Congo -- claims to defend the Lendu ethnic group.

Lieutenant Ngongo said fighting was continuing Tuesday between the Congolese army and CODECO militiamen.

Thousands of villagers have fled the region to nearby Mungwalu, according to the town's mayor Jean-Pierre Bikilisende.

"It's a catastrophe," he said. "We are looking for schools to shelter them."

Ngongo said the militia fighters set fire to the general hospital in Itendeyi, a commune where the army had regained control by the end of the day, with the help of helicopters.

An official from a neighbouring town of Bakonde said that the health centre there had also been vandalised.

More fighting was reported elsewhere in the province, south of Bunia.

The clash between soldiers and Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) fighters there left three civilians dead at the hands of the rebels, according to an initial toll.

Two were hauliers and the third was a cash transporter, the army said.

Civilian power in North Kivu and Ituri provinces was turned over to a military governor and a deputy governor drawn from the police under a "state of siege" in early May with the aim of clamping down on the grinding violence.

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