A local official in Rangoon Township received serious head injuries when three desperate cyclone victims attacked him for failing to distribute aid supplies on Friday, a local resident said.

Three victims, whose homes and properties were destroyed by Cyclone Nargis on Friday, attacked the chairman of the Ward Peace and Development Council of Kwungyan in Thwante town, southwest of Rangoon, for failing to distribute relief material provided by Medicines San Frontiers (MSN), also known as doctors without Border.

"The chairman sustained injuries on his head but was not hospitalised," the local said.

The MSF last week donated several bags of rice to the ward's Buddhist monastery to be distributed to cyclone victims. But the abbot of the monastery handed over the rice to the local authorities saying he was not capable of calculating and therefore requested the authorities to take charge of the distribution.

The local resident said the authorities failed to distribute the supplies and held on to it for two days. When the villagers asked about it, the authorities could not give a proper answer.

"So, the three men were outraged and started attacking the Chairman," the local, who wished not to be named, said.

He added that several people in the ward, affected by the cyclone, were looking forward to the relief and after waiting for two days, people started thinking that the authorities must have distributed the rice among themselves without giving it to the victims.

The MSF's aid is the first relief that the villagers saw and were desperately waiting to get a share to alleviate their sufferings.