Armed supporters of Fiji's racially-motivated coup yesterday began rounding up ethnic Indian men in retaliation for a crackdown by the army and the arrest of their leader.
Rebels loyal to Mr George Speight and his cause of installing an ethnically pure Fijian government began systematically picking up Indian males off the streets of the northern town of Labasa.
Sources said up to 200 males were being held. The rebels drove through town looking for men and boys from different families, they said.
Mirroring violence seen all through the two-month crisis, shops and businesses belonging to ethnic Indians were also ransacked and looted.
Hundreds of ethnic Indians fled into the jungle, said the sources. The military and the police have also fled the town on the northern island of Vanua Levu.
The army confirmed the mass abductions, which brought soldiers and the rebels one step closer to all-out confrontation.
They came in retaliation for the arrest of Mr Speight and his key allies on Wednesday night and the detention of hundreds of coup supporters early yesterday.
One person was killed in yesterday's operation against Mr Speight's camp outside the capital, Suva.
Another 40 were injured and 369 people arrested, the army spokesman, Lieut Col Filipo Tarakinikini, said.
The dead man, aged 50, died from the effects of tear-gas used in the raid, he said. None of the injured was shot.
He added that Mr Speight, held at military headquarters in Suva, could face a charge of treason, which carries the death penalty in Fiji.
"This crisis has dragged on for too long and there have been so many excuses used in the name of indigenous Fijians that has really embarrassed and brought shame to Fijians," Lieut Col Tarakinikini said.
"We cannot allow people of a criminal tendency to use the cause of the indigenous Fijians for their own selfish ends. We will ensure the country's return to normalcy is as quick as possible."
Within hours of the arrests, the Labasa rebels retaliated. The hostages were being held at the town's barracks, in rebel hands for several weeks.
Also on Vanua Levu, two New Zealand pilots flying for Air Fiji were taken hostage after landing at Savusavu airport. Three armed men escorted them from their aircraft and took them to Nabalebale village. Diplomatic sources said no demands had yet been issued.
Meanwhile, banker Mr Laisenia Qarase was this morning named to continue as Fiji's interim Prime Minister.
Mr Qarase, who has been Prime Minister since the end of martial law two weeks ago, will head an interim unelected government for three years until general elections can be held.
The line-up, announced by President Josefa Iloilo, drops the known Speight supporters from a line-up a week earlier. Four associate ministers named last week and identified with Mr Speight have lost their positions.