AN INDONESIAN mob, apparently incensed by a report that police had beaten a religious teacher, went on the rampage yesterday, setting fire to churches, commercial buildings and vehicles, police and residents said.
They said the West Java town of Tasikmalaya, about 125 miles south-east of Jakarta, appeared to be under siege with smoke billowing from burning buildings.
Residents contacted by telephone said police and troops had sealed off the town of about 500,000 people, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
They said a crowd of several thousand people, many of them youths, ran amok apparently after police had beaten a religious school teacher and his two students.
Another policeman earlier said three Christian churches were among the buildings set on fire. A resident said two stores were reported to be burning, while several cars had also been set alight.
In the last major riot in Indonesia, 25 churches and a temple were burnt down and five people died in October after a mob rampaged in the Situbondo area of East Java. This riot was provoked by a court case in which a Muslim heretic subsequently received a jail term for blasphemy.
The police official in Tasikmalaya said more than 200 policemen had been deployed and reinforcements had been sought from the town of Bandung, about 75 miles to the north-west.
He said police were trying to determine the extent of the damage in Tasikmalaya, a key road and rail transit town from Jakarta to central Java, which produces mainly handicraft products.
More than 80 per cent of Indonesia's nearly 200 million people are Muslims.