Jakarta – Indonesian police Sunday fired warning shots to disperse groups of Muslims who pelted churches in the central Java city of Yogyakarta after attending a mass rally to protest violence against Muslims in the Malukus, police and the military said.

"Yes, shots were fired, but in the air, and there was no one injured," said Danar, from Yogyakarta city police. "There was no serious damage or riot, the mobs only pelted the churches with stones and some with firecrackers," he added.

He said some 6,000 people who had attended a mass rally at the Kridosono stadium, organized by a Muslim group to protest the violence against Muslims in the Maluku islands, had broken up into several convoys after the meeting ended around noon.

The crowds pelted at least six churches and one convent before police had dispersed them by 3pm, Danar said.

A soldier at the Yogyakarta military command who only identified himself as Tugimin, said one policemen was injured but he declined to give further details. Tugiman said the damage was limited to broken roof tiles and windows.

The Detikcom online news service said a first sergeant from Brimob, the police's mass control unit, was wounded, slashed with a knife by members of one of the roaming convoys.

Danar said the city was now calm, although the few businesses that had dared to remain open for the day had quickly closed their doors at the first reports of the convoys forming up.

Earlier Sunday, Second Lieutenant Parmin from the Yogyakarta city police said the rally, organized by a Muslim organisation, lasted about three hours and ended around noon.

Some of the participants later went in a convoy to the police headquarters of Sleman district, about eight kilometers from the stadium, he said. Others went in separate convoys crisscrossing the main streets of the city.

The officer said most of the participants were clad in white. The convoy of cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles carrying the participants stretched for more than a kilometre at one point, he added.

An officer at Sleman district declined to give details of the protest there, but said "they had a free speech forum here and the district police chief addressed them."

Detikcom said the protestors, around 800 people, went to the Sleman police station to demand to meet with one of their fellow members who was detained there.

The local police chief allowed the detainee to come out to meet and talk with the crowd but put him back into his cell after 15 minutes, Detikcom said. There were no incidents and the protestors went away peacefully.

A similar rally was held by Muslims in Solo, some 60 kilometres northeast of Yogyakarta, overnight Saturday to Sunday. The rally was attended by some 3,000 Muslims and later dispersed without incident, Detikcom said.

A massive Muslim rally in Mataram, the main city on Lombok island, east of Bali, in mid-January turned violent when the participants went on the rampage, burning at least 11 churches and torching or ransacking scores of other buildings belonging to non-Muslims over three days.

Fears of violence after the rally had forced businesses, especially near the stadium and on the main highways leading to it, to remain closed Sunday.

Concern over sectarian violence had been strong in Yogyakarta since the discovery last week of a home-made bomb in the city's main mosque. Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Thursday said he had ordered security forces to find the culprit.