Jakarta – Rock-throwing students damaged at least four churches and four Catholic schools in Ujunagpandang, the capital of Indonesia's South Sulawesi province, witnesses said Friday.

Thousands of students from at least four universities in the city held a street rally Thursday to demand a halt to the Moslem-Christian violence in Ambon, capital of the Maluku province, which has killed more than 200 people since mid-January this year.

"The students were passing by our church when they pelted it with rocks. Some windows are broken." a secretary at the Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Ujungpandang, who identified herself as Lien, told AFP by phone.

Lien said the students also hurled rocks at other nearby churches and Catholic schools, shattering windows.

She said troops and police were rushed to the scene and managed to contain the violence, which lasted about an hour. There were no casualties, she said.

Students throughout the country, mostly Moslems, have been demonstrating against the military for its inability to curb the persistent violence in Ambon, with some groups calling for Jihad (holy war).

Indonesian Christians are a small minority in this predominantly Moslem country of 202 million people, and tensions between the two religions have risen as a result of the Ambon violence.