Jakarta – In the latest incidents of mass violence to hit Indonesia, separate mobs attacked a police post in Sumatra and burned the parliament house in West Kalimantan province, press reports said Saturday.

In the Sumatran town of Tanjungbintang, hundreds of people attacked the police post Thursday after they failed to obtain the release of three villagers detained on suspicion of theft from a rubber plantation and the murder of a guard there, the Media Indonesia daily said.

Two of the attackers were wounded by bullets and the head of the police post, Second Lieutenant Ersan, was hit by stones and sustained head injuries, the daily said.

The attackers, from two villages near the plantation, damaged the police station and also torched two cars and four motorcycles. Seventeen of the attackers were arrested but the three suspected thieves managed to escape.

In Mempawah, northwest of the West Kalimantan provincial capital of Pontianak, hundreds of people attacked the local district parliament Friday, pelting it with stones before setting the main building on fire.

The Media Indonesia said the attackers left as suddenly as they arrived and the fire was quickly extinguished. The attack prompted businesses and shops there to close and police and troops were deployed.

The violence was believed to have been caused by the failure of a local politician to be selected as a government-recognised candidate eligible for local elections for district head, the daily said.