Ambon – Boats carrying hundreds of refugees left a riot-torn Indonesian town today after deadly fighting between Muslims and Christians. At least 24 people have died in unrest in the region this week, a newspaper reported.

There were no reports of fresh violence in the city of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, and security forces escorted the few private cars that ventured onto the roads.

Religious violence swept many neighborhoods in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday, with mobs battling each other with swords, bows and arrows and gasoline bombs. Soldiers fired on the rioters repeatedly in an attempt to disperse them.

The death toll in rioting this week on two Maluku islands has risen to 24, said the Jawa Pos newspaper, citing its reporters on the scene.

Sixteen people died in the city of Ambon, which is situated on an island bearing the same name, the newspaper said. Another eight were killed in the neighboring island of Saparua.

More than 150 people have died in several Maluku islands this year in the worst rioting since the downfall of Suharto. Ambon is 1,400 miles east of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, and is located in what was known in Dutch colonial times as the Spice Islands.

Today, many shops in the city were closed and fearful traders stayed home. Because of the scarcity, prices of fish and vegetables have risen between three and five times.

Thousands of residents, including children and elderly people, have fled the coastal city aboard chartered boats, said Hans Noya, an official at the local office of the ministry of religion.

In the rioting last month, more than 3,300 houses and two dozen churches and mosques were burned. Rioters burned hundreds of other houses in Ambon this week.