TUNIS, June 6 (Reuters) - Police fired guns to disperse hundreds of youths rioting over joblessness and rising living costs in southwest Tunisia, leaving one dead and several injured, government and labour union officials said on Friday.

"The security forces came under assault from thrown flammable objects and were obliged to intervene to neutralise certain people who were making them," said an official in Tunis who declined to be named.

Hafnawi al-Maghazoui, 22, was killed by a bullet in the lung when police opened fire, while 22 other protesters were wounded, union leader Adnen Hajji told Reuters.

A government source put the toll of injured at three police officers and five demonstrators.

Social unrest has rumbled on in Redeyef and the wider phosphate mining region of Gafsa for two months. Police made brief arrests in Redeyef in April after clashes with stone-throwing demonstrators.

Such violent protests are rare in the North African country of 10 million where the government of President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali, in power since 1987, shows little tolerance of dissent.

Tunisia has North Africa's biggest middle class but after years of improving living standards the rising prices of imported commodities are making people feel poorer.

Inflation in Tunisia stood at 6 percent in April, the highest level in three years, as soaring prices of commodities on world markets pushed up the cost of food and transport. (Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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