11 Blacks Killed by S. Africa Police : Racial unrest: A white officer is also slain when an ANC demonstration turns violent.

Police shot and killed 11 blacks, including a 9-year-old girl, and a white sergeant was hacked to death Sunday in a clash with African National Congress supporters in a township east of Johannesburg, police said.

The battle, the deadliest between police and demonstrators in a year, began shortly after 1 p.m. in Daveyton when police arrived to investigate a report of an illegal gathering of 200 ANC supporters.

Police were worried about the possibility of a clash between the ANC and the rival Inkatha Freedom Party, which was holding a legally sanctioned rally in a stadium three miles away. Fighting between ANC and Inkatha supporters has claimed more than 100 lives this month and 1,200 in the past six months.

The police ordered the ANC group to disperse and called for reinforcements. Just as backup units arrived, “the crowd surged forward and began to attack,” throwing homemade gasoline bombs at about 50 officers and charging with machetes and sticks, said Maj. Ray Harrald, a police spokesman. Officers reported hearing gunfire from the crowd as well, Harrald said.

“Our guys realized their lives were in danger and there was no way they could get out of the situation,” he said. “They didn’t have time to give a second warning. They had to open fire to protect their own lives and limbs.”

During the battle, one officer, SgtP. van Wyk, 24, was attacked with knives and machetes by the crowd. He died later in a hospital. Two other officers received cuts.

ANC spokeswoman Gill Marcus called the incident “a criminal action” by the police that was “completely unprovoked.” She identified one of the victims as a 9-year-old girl who was playing outside her home.

“Its savagery places it amongst some of the worst massacres this country has ever seen,” Marcus said. The ANC called for an independent inquiry into the deaths.

Gen. Johan van der Merwe, the commissioner of police, announced a special team to investigate the deaths. But he said the incident appears to have been the result of “an unprovoked attack” on police.

On Friday, Justice Minister Hendrik J. Coetsee announced that a 15-year-old ban on unauthorized political and protest meetings, such as the ANC gathering on Sunday, will be lifted next week.

The clash Sunday was the worst such incident since last March 26, when police killed 11 protesters in the black township of Sebokeng, south of Johannesburg. Police claimed that the crowd had attacked them, but a judicial inquest found no provocation from the demonstrators.

Most of the recent violence in South African townships has been between blacks, often ANC and Inkatha supporters. Police reported 17 other deaths in clashes between ANC and Inkatha supporters in Johannesburg-area townships over the weekend.

Some of the worst internecine warfare in recent weeks has occurred in Alexandra, a township within the city limits of Johannesburg, where three people were shot to death and five others hacked to death in fighting on Saturday.

Inkatha’s leader, Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, and the ANC deputy president, Nelson Mandela, signed a peace pact in January and urged their supporters to stop fighting, but the battles continue.

The ANC on Saturday blamed the continuing violence on the government’s “reluctance to take decisive action,” and it called on police and army soldiers to disarm Inkatha supporters. Inkatha supporters are routinely allowed to openly carry spears and sticks known as knobkerries, which the government considers traditional weapons.

Tension has been heightened by an Inkatha recruiting drive in townships near Johannesburg, far from its traditional base of support among the Zulus of Natal province. It claims to have increased its membership from 1.8 million to 2.2 million in recent months.

The Inkatha rally in Daveyton was called to open a new branch in the township, a traditional base of support for the ANC. Many Inkatha supporters who showed up for the rally were carrying spears, sticks and shields. Police said the rally was peaceful.