Jakarta – A mob of angry Jakarta residents on Wednesday set ablaze four cars and a gambling den in Jakarta's Chinatown on the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, witnesses said.

An AFP photographer said a building believed to be a gambling den was on fire when she arrived at the scene. Police were quick to move in and bring the crowd under control.

"One jeep and two minivans parked under the flyover were set ablaze with another vehicle set on fire in front of the entrance of a building," she said.

The mob – believed to be angered by the operation of the gambling den despite the onset of the Muslim holy month – also smashed the windows of at least one building, the photographer said.

A resident in the Asemka area, near an old section of Jakarta, told AFP that the incident could also have stemmed from "a possible business competition among gambling mafia" who provoked local residents to burn the place.

He said the competing mafia "might have urged" the residents to destroy the place by using as an excuse the increasing calls to suspend prostitution, gambling and drugs before Thursday – the first day of Ramadan in this largely Muslim nation.

Watched by some 100 onlookers, several military police officers were seen checking the damage at the site, but no arrests were made.

Jakarta was hit by a three-day orgy of arson, rape and looting in May 1998 and the Chinatown area suffered the most casualties. At least 1,000 residents were killed with hundreds of buildings destroyed at that time.