Solomon Islands police say six people are believed to have been killed by supporters of the rebel leader Harold Keke when they attacked a boat delivering relief food supplies to the Guadalcanal Weather Coast.
A second boat returned to Honiara to raise the alarm.
Keke and his followers have been blamed for dozens of deaths over the past two years, while he is also holding an unspecified number of people hostage.
The police spokesman Charles Lemoa says the boat was attacked as it approached a village on the Weather Coast.
"I think some of his men were on the beach and they waved his boat to come ashore and when the boat approached the shoreline all of a sudden they started firing, so the information I have this morning is that the boat was sunk and most of the things inside presumably taken"
Charles Lemoa says those presumed dead were civilians working with the police team on the Weather Coast.
He says the second boat did not unload its rations before returning to Honiara.
