Jakarta – About 1,500 people looted four hectares (9.8 acres) of ready-to harvest onion fields in the densely-populated island of Java, reports said here Saturday.

The mob descended on the onion fields that straddled two districts, Losari Timor in Central Java and Cirebon in West Java, on Friday afternoon, the Kompas daily said. The fields had been due for harvest on Saturday.

"We initially only wanted to take one kilogram that we can sell for 9,000 rupiah (75 cents) so that we can buy rice," Kompas quoted one of the looters as saying. One kilogram of low quality rice now costs about 3,000 rupiah.

The looting was halted after police arrived in the area. The owner of the onion field estimated his losses at about 300 million rupiah (25,316 dollars.)

The soaring prices of essentials has sparked looting of rice mills, shops, rice fields and even rice trucks by mobs in several areas. In the East Java district of Malang, mobs attacked a warehouse owned by an ethnic Chinese businessman early Friday and carried away about 70 tonnes of rice and 30 tonnes of flour.

The warehouse, usually used to store sugar cane, had already been sealed by police because the businessman was suspected of hoarding 240 tonnes of rice, 45 tonnes of sugar and 77 tonnes of flour.

The villagers were angered at the businessman for having stocked the commodity over the past month despite shortages and high prices in the local market, Kompas said. The looted commodities were all that was left after police had begun to move the seized stock.

Officials and economists have blamed speculators, hoarders and smugglers for contributing to the shortage and high prices of essentials despite government assurances of adequate stocks. No arrest were made in either of Friday's incidents, police said.