COLOMBO (AFP) - A local Red Cross worker was killed Wednesday in renewed shelling of Tamil Tiger-held territory in northeast Sri Lanka, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

"One of our male employees and his mother were killed this afternoon, they were hit by a shell," said the ICRC's spokeswoman in Colombo, Sarasi Wijeratne.

The organisation did not say who was responsible for the attack.

The Tamil Tiger rebels, however, accused government forces of carrying out fresh artillery and mortar attacks, claiming that 38 women were killed on Wednesday when a mental health facility was hit.

Sri Lankan authorities have fiercely denied they are using heavy weapons to strike the small area held by the rebels and packed with tens of thousands of civilians.

A local doctor contacted by AFP said he could only confirm that a medical facility in the rebel-held area had been hit, but gave no casualty figures.

"Two shells fell on the hospital compound today," T. Varatharajah, a doctor working at a make-shift hospital at Mullivaikal said by telephone. "There are lots of casualties, but I don't have the numbers yet."

The same hospital was hit on Tuesday and some 47 people were killed, according to the rebels.