Jakarta – Rioting mobs burned shops and houses in Bagansiapi-api, a fishing town on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, news reports said Wednesday. Hundreds of people took part in the rampage that began Tuesday evening and ended early Wednesday.

Police were not immediately available for comment. A navy officer in the neighboring town of Dumai confirmed the riot, but refused to provide any detail.

Bagansiapi-api in the province of Riau, is about 1,125 kilometers northwest of Jakarta. According to Kompas, a daily newspaper, the riot was believed to be incited by a brawl Sunday between two groups that led to the damage of some houses. So far, there are no reports of arrests or injuries.

A similar incident occurred Saturday in Palopo and Luwu, two neighboring towns in South Sulawesi, about 1,250 kilometers northeast of Jakarta, where two people were killed and 118 houses were damaged after a mass brawl. Sporadic rioting has erupted in other parts of Indonesia recently over rising prices of basic foods.

The official Antara news agency said about 300 houses and shops, two hotels, mostly owned by ethnic Chinese, were set ablaze. The local customs house was also burned. Thousands of people took part in the rampage that began Tuesday evening and ended early Wednesday, police said.

A police officer in the neighboring town of Bengkalis, said hundreds of soldiers and police were deployed from nearby towns to quell the violence. "Dozens have been arrested and are being interrogated," the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in a telephone interview.

He said some rioters set fire to plastic bags containing gasoline and hurled them onto the roofs of shops and buildings. Antara quoted local residents as saying many of the rioters were not from Bagansiapi-api, about 1,125 kilometers northwest of Jakarta.

The residents said mobs gathered in the town's streets amid rumors that a local man had been killed in fight with an ethnic Chinese man, Antara reported.

[On September 17 the state news agency Antara said that 300 troops from neighbouring Pekanbaru and Dumai had been deployed in Bagansiapi-api. The Jakarta Post quoted Bengkalis Police Chief Lieutenant Colonel Luther Harefa as saying 31 looters and agitators had been arrested - James Balowski.]