Rioters burn Chinese shops in Indonesia

Rioting mobs burned hundreds of ethnic Chinese-owned shops and houses in a fishing town on Sumatra island in the latest rioting during Indonesia's economic crisis.

Thousands of people took part in the rampage that began Tuesday evening and ended early Wednesday in Bagansiapi-api, about 700 miles northwest of the capital, Jakarta, police said.Some of the rioters ignited plastic bags filled with gasoline and hurled them onto the roofs of buildings, setting ablaze two hotels and about 300 houses and shops, according to police and the official Antara news agency. There were no reports of injuries.

Local residents said mobs gathered in the town's streets amid rumors that a local man had been killed in a fight with an ethnic Chinese man, Antara reported.

Ethnic Chinese make up only a small fraction of Indonesia's population and have been targeted in riots as scapegoats for Indonesia's economic problems, the worst in 30 years.