AFP - Three people including two policemen were killed in southern Yemen on Thursday in armed clashes between separatists and police, security sources said.

Fighting broke out in Lahj province when the separatist Southern Movement tried to replace the Yemeni republic's flag at a local government headquarters with the flag of the former South Yemen, they said.

One member of the group was killed and three wounded.

In Shabwa province, to the east, police and demonstrators exchanged fire in the town of Mayfah, security officials said. Two policemen died as they attempted to flee but their vehicle overturned.

Separately, a roadside bomb in the Abyan town of Lawdar targeted the local headquarters of the Southern Movement, wounding two people and sparking a protest, a member of the group said.

Demonstrations were held in at least two others locations in Abyan, witnesses said.

Southern Movement members hold demonstrations each Thursday, the start of the Muslim weekend, to demand the release of prisoners detained by the Sanaa government and to demand independence.

Pro-independence protest have multiplied in the south amid Yemen's worsening economic situation and complaints of discrimination in favour of northerners by the government.

South Yemen was independent from 1967 until it united with the north in 1990. The south seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived civil war that ended when the south was overrun by northern troops.