At least 48 people have been killed in ethnic clashes in south-eastern Kenya, officials say.

The clashes in Tana River district, Coast Province, took place late on Tuesday between the Orma and Pokomo groups, the region’s police chief said.

Most of the dead were women and children, he said. Police have been deployed to the area.

The clash is the worst since post-election violence rocked the country after disputed polls four years ago.

Regional deputy police chief Joseph Kitur told AFP news agency that those killed were either hacked to death with machetes or burned alive.

The victims included 31 women, 11 children and six men, he said, describing it as “a very bad incident”.

The BBC’s Frenny Jowi in the capital, Nairobi, says violence between the two communities is often reported, but not on such a huge scale.

There is long-standing enmity between the region’s pastoralist communities, who get caught up in a cycle of revenge killings over the theft of cattle and grazing and water rights, she says.

The semi-arid region is one of the poorest in Kenya, with very little infrastructure or industry, our reporter adds.

– BBC News