Jakarta – Violence marred New Year celebrations in at least four towns in the Indonesian province of West Java which saw looting and vandalism while revellers threw fireworks at passing motorists, newspapers said Saturday. Unrest broke out in the towns of Sukabumi, Bandung, Cilegon and Garut, but no casualties were reported, the newspapers said.

On Thursday night hundreds of youths in Sukabumi, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of here, gathered in the town's Merdeka square and started to destroy ornamental flower beds and nearby shops.

Local police and troops managed to stop the mob from rampaging through a nearby night market. At least 15 youths were arrested for questioning. Sukabumi police were unavailable for comment on the unrest.

Hundreds of others in the steel-producing town of Cilegon, also around 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the west, taunted motorists on the main highway with lighted fire crackers. But police did little to stop the residents for fear of a confrontation. "Just let them celebrate the New Year that way, they might become more angry and brutal if bothered," the local Banten district police chief Eddy Karnadi was quoted as saying by Media Indonesia.

In the West Java provincial capital of Bandung hundreds destroyed numerous ornamental plants lining the streets and hurled rocks at shops and passing cars, the local Pikiran Rakyat daily reported. Local police rerouted traffic, but made no arrests, Pikiran said.

The daily also reported that some 500 police elite mobile brigade troops had been dispatched to monitor northern coastal traffic on the route running from West to East Java, usually packed with holiday travellers, amid escalating crime on the highway.

Reports on Friday said the looting of a local supermarket marred the New Year festivities in the West Java town of Garut, where several shops were vandalized. Several arrests were made.