Naomi Lee, Jakarta – Anti-Chinese riots in Ujung Pandang, which continued for a third day yesterday, have claimed three lives, police said, as victims of the violence - including Hong Kong businessmen - told of their terror at the hands of rampaging mobs.

The riots were sparked when an apparently mentally disturbed Chinese man stabbed two Muslim girls on Monday night.

One, aged nine, died on the spot, and a 19-year-old relative died in hospital on Tuesday. Their attacker was beaten to death soon after the stabbing.

All shops and schools in the South Sulawesi provincial capital were closed yesterday and police warned ethnic Chinese to stay home.

An ethnic-Chinese restaurant worker told the South China Morning Post she had seen Chinese being dragged naked from their homes.

"Their houses were set on fire. The people targeted big shops and restaurants run by Chinese," the widow, 57, who had not left the restaurant since Monday, said.

"It is the most violent riot I have seen in recent years. Before, they would only throw stones."

Yeung Kwok-hung, a Hong Kong businessman, told television reporters he had been stranded in his office with three other Hong Kong people.

"We have to protect ourselves. It is dangerous out there," he said.

"The slogan of the Indonesians is to kill the Chinese."

Residents said yesterday's violence was not as bad as on Tuesday.

But shops and schools were shut and police and troops were patrolling streets.

An Ujung Pandang police officer said two firemen were found dead in the rubble of a razed building on Tuesday night, while another charred body was found yesterday in a gutted pub. More than 1,000 people rampaged through the city on Tuesday, throwing stones, looting and burning homes, shops and vehicles, mainly in ethnic Chinese areas.

Major-General Agum Gumelar of the Wirabuana military command said 79 people had been detained following the riots. An employee at a local hospital on Tuesday said 28 ethnic Chinese had been treated for injuries.

Ujung Pandang police said more than 400 buildings and 100 cars were damaged, including a temple.

A resident said a 10 pm curfew was imposed on Tuesday and that security forces fired warning shots in the air, ordering residents to stay indoors.

The rioting was the latest in a series of ethnic disturbances to rock Indonesia in the past year.

Most have involved Muslims attacking Christian and ethnic-Chinese targets.