Jakarta – Six men were killed when police opened fire on hundreds of angry fishermen who stormed and burned 10 fish warehouses in the North Sumatra port of Belawan on Tuesday, reports reaching here said.

The six victims all died of gunshots fired by members of the Brimob elite police unit who were deployed to disband a mob that attacked the Belawan port near Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, early on Tuesday, the Detikcom online news service said.

The attackers had been angered by the beating up of one fisherman by guards of the warehouse complex after he was caught stealing one fish the previous day.

Fishermen said that they had not been at sea for the past eight days because of bad weather,and some of them were desperate to feed their families, Detikcom reported.

Ten fish warhouses, six cars and two fish trawler boats were burned in the violence, but Detikcom said that by late afternoon, the police had reestablished control of the area.