Jakarta – Four days of ethnic violence in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan has left 51 dead and thousands evacuated, a report said Friday.

The heaviest toll in the daily carnage came Thursday when 33 died, the Kompas daily said, adding 1,900 troops and police had been sent to the Sambas district to prevent the violence from spreading further.

The fighting, sparked by a dispute between members of the Malay and Madurese migrant communities last Sunday, had spilled over to six sub-districts by Thursday, the daily said.

The military and police in Singkawang, the main town of the Sambas district, and in Pontianak, the main city in West Kalimantan province, declined comment Friday. But the head of the Sambas police had gone to the area to coordinate peace efforts, a member of his staff said.

The 51 deaths this week brought the toll since violence first broke out between the two communities in February, to 68 killed, with more than 1,000 houses torched and 3,351 Madurese evacuated to Singakawang and Pontianak, the daily said.

The violence erupted on February 22 after a Madurese man refused to pay his public minibus fare and stabbed the Malay driver in an ensuing argument.

Friends of the driver retaliated by attacking the village in Tebas subdistrict where the Madurese lived, sparking an initial wave of violence that spread to nearby Pemangkat leaving 17 dead.

The renewed fighting broke out on Monday with members of the Madurese community attacking a predominantly Malay settlement in Pemangkat after a Malay had scolded a Madurese the previous day for carrying a machete in public.