YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A curfew has been imposed in a northern town of Myanmar where simmering tensions between Buddhist and Muslim residents erupted into rioting last week, travelers said Tuesday.
Members of the two communities in Toungoo town attacked each other with sticks and stones, while several mosques were set on fire, said a Yangon resident who returned from Toungoo on Monday.
A Muslim resident of Toungoo who fled to neighboring Thailand told The Associated Press in the Thai border town of Mae Hong Sot that Buddhist monks and laymen killed four Muslims, including a 60-year-old woman.
The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Buddhists set fire to about 140 Muslim houses and 14 mosques, eight of which were destroyed.
Telephone lines to the town were disconnected, and the account could not be independently confirmed. A terse Myanmar government statement said ``some clashes took place ... after a brawl started between some locals last week.''
A curfew has been imposed, and the ``situation is under control and contained. An official investigation is in progress,'' the statement said, without elaborating.
Muslims comprise 3.9 percent of Myanmar's 51 million people, while Buddhists form nearly 89 percent. Myanmar's military junta allows freedom of worship to all faiths, but clashes between people of different religions are not uncommon.
Toungoo, a trading town known for its betel nut crop, is on the highway to Myanmar's second largest city, Mandalay, and is 155 miles north of the capital, Yangon.
AP-NY-05-22-01 0343EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.