Jakarta – A mob attacked a police post in Indonesia's eastern island of Flores, ransacking it and killing two civilians they accused of trying to infect local dogs with rabies, the military and residents said Monday.

"The situation is now entirely under control and there is no more violence, no more large mobs," said an officer on duty at the Manggarai district military command, who identified himself only as Pamuji.

Speaking from Ruteng, the main town of Manggarai district, Pamuji said a mob of some 5,000 people had attacked and ransacked the district police post on Saturday. "The police post is seriously damaged and the police are now operating temporarily from the police chief's residence," Pamuji said.

He said two civilians seeking refuge at the police post were killed while another was severely injured, but declined to add details. "One man was killed on site while another died at the hospital after two hours of treatment failed to save him," said Vera Damianus, the head of the Ruteng state hospital. A third man also beaten up by the mob at the police post, was rescued and is currently still under treatment at the hospital, Damianus said, adding that the man's life was no in danger.

The three civilians, according to the Kompas daily newspaper, had been promoting the sale of beds around town, driving a pickup truck. But one of the man was reportedly seen giving a piece of bread to a stray dog, which not long afterwards became wild and frothed at the mouth, symptoms of rabies.

The town had been awash with rumours of people spreading the virus through various means, including through food and water given to street dogs. Reports of the incident quickly spread and scores of people began to give chase to the pickup, which later sought protection at the district police post.

A crowd that quickly grew to thousands strong encircled the post and demanded the three men be handed over. Police refused and the mob, vastly outnumbering police, attacked and ransacked the post, seizing the trio.

Victims of rabies-infected dogs have been on the rise in Flores, with Kompas citing figures showing 30 people were registered in Manggarai district this year, while in the neighbouring Bajawa district 458 people had been infected. Nineteen of the people infected in Bajawa had since died.

The governor of the Nusatenggara Timur province, which includes Flores, and the province's police chief both flew to Ruteng from Kupang on Timor island on Sunday to make sure the unrest did not develop further, the Antara news agency said.