Beirut - At least one person was wounded Wednesday in clashes that erupted between rival Palestinians inside a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Palestinian sources said.

The clashes erupted between the mainstream Fatah faction and extremists from Jund al-Sham in the camp at Ain el-Hilweh, east of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, the sources said.

The fighting started after a personal quarrele broke into clashes with machineguns, wounding at least one person, the sources said.

The clashes caused panic inside the camp which is the residence of some 70,000 Palestinian refugees.

There are some 367,000 Palestinian refugees living in 12 camps around Lebanon.

Similar clashes have erupted in the past in Ain el Hilweh between the two rivals.

Jund al Sham, believed to have first appeared in Afghanistan in 1999, was established by Syrians and Palestinians with links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who founded al-Qaeda in Iraq and was subsequently killed by a US airstrike. (dpa)