Jakarta – Three cars were set ablaze and a man was shot by police when a riot broke out Thursday in an Indonesian town over an attempt to extort money from returning migrant workers, officials said.

"One man was brought in with a gunshot wound to his stomach," said Jajat, a hospital employee at Purwakarta in West Java province. Jajat said he had been told the man had been shot by police who were trying to disperse a mob gathering on the main highway at Plered just outside the town.

The mob, reported to number some 2,000, had been angered by reports about an extortion attempt against returning migrant women workers in Purwakarta, the Detikcom online news service said. The women had been travelling home in a hired car. Once they reached Purwakarta, two men, including the car driver, allegedly tried to extort money from them.

The women's cries for help alerted passers-by who seized one man and handed him over to police. But a mob quickly formed and demanded that the man be handed over to them, a demand the police refused.

The mob then went amok and burnt the hired car. Police efforts to halt the violence further angered the crowd which torched two police cars, said a local police officer who declined to give his name. He told AFP the mob had been disbanded but could not confirm that a man had been wounded by police gunfire.

Returning women migrant workers have been popular prey for extortionists, starting at the airport when they come back from abroad.