Three French tourists were shot dead and two other tourists wounded on Monday in Namibia, close to the Angolan border, according to Namibian police.

Two aid workers were injured in a separate attack in the same area.

The incidents are the latest in a series of attacks on civilians which have been reported from the region recently, as Angola's war against Unita rebels has spilt into Namibia.

At least two of the dead are children.

Diplomats in Windhoek were quoted as saying said two vehicles carrying tourists had driven into an ambush near a game reserve.

The second vehicle, in which a French family was travelling, had borne the brunt of the gunfire.

The shooting took place in the western part of the Caprivi strip, about 200km (125 miles) east of the town of Rundu.

Police have suggested the gunmen who attacked the tourists could have been Unita fighters.

But a Unita representative in Nambia blamed the attack on "undisciplined" Angolan Government soldiers.

Two other vehicles transporting workers of the Danish aid agency DAPP (Development Aid for People to People), were attacked in the same area later on Monday evening, police said.

The Danish consul in Windhoek told the South African Press Association that the drivers of the two cars - a Namibian and a Scot - had been shot in the legs but managed to drive on.

Civilians abducted

At the weekend, suspected Unita rebels attacked civilians near Bagani, also in western Caprivi, the independent newspaper The Namibian reported.

The newspaper said eight people were wounded - four seriously - in the attack with grenades and assault rifles, and 20 Namibians were abducted.

The attackers planted anti-personnel mines and landmines on their way back to Angola.

Last month Angolan Government forces reported successes in driving Unita out of south of the country, which had previously been a rebel stronghold.

The government says it has secured 1,250km (750 miles) of the frontier, and has taken the former Unita base of Jamba in the extreme south-east of Angola.

Since then, fears of Unita incursions into Namibia have prompted the Angolan army to send its troops across the border in an attempt to contain the rebels inside Angola