Security forces have been deployed to a village in western Indonesia where three days of communal violence left at least 14 people dead.

Police say the clashes in Balinuraga village in Lampung province were prompted by reports that two young girls of Balinese descent were sexually harassed or assaulted by young men from the Lampung ethnic group on Sunday.

More than 1,500 police and 500 military personnel have been sent to restore peace to the village, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra.

More than a thousand people have taken temporary refuge in a nearby police complex. Police say at least 160 houses and several vehicles have been set on fire.

The region has experienced at least three other inter-village clashes this year.