Jakarta – Security forces fired warning shots to fend off crowds Thursday on the third day of mass looting of rice mills and stores in the densely-populated Indonesian province of East Java, police and military there said.

"We have dispatched police units to Tamanan, towards the east, where mobs are reported to be still attacking rice mills today," the head of the Bondowoso city police, Lieutenant Colonel Suyitno Darmo told AFP by telephone. He said soldiers from the local district command were also dispatched there but declined to provide further details.

A staff member at the office of the police chief of the Besuki area that encompasses Bondowoso said 47 people arrested during the looting were under police questioning.

The head of the Bondowoso military district, Lieutenant Colonel Sutadji declined to confirm the report of further looting on Thursday saying "the situation now is under control and we are doing our best to prevent the recurrence of such actions." "There has been no casualty so far as we have only fired warning shots into the air to disperse the large crowds from attacking further mills and stores," he told AFP by telephone.

He said separate mobs had attacked and looted three rice mills on Tuesday and four others on the following day. The mobs on Wednesday also began to attack foodstores and looted three of them. Widespread looting and attacks on stores, plantations and rice mills have taken place in various areas in East Java in the past months as the Indonesian economic crisis bites deeper.

The prices of basic commodities, including rice which is the main staple food of the nation, have soared, with the Kompas daily saying that in Bondowoso, the price of one kilogram of rice had now reached up to 4,000 rupiah (36 cents) or about the daily wage of a farm hand.