A rampaging mob set fire to a mosque and homes in a central Myanmar town, a police official said Wednesday, the latest outbreak of violence in communal unrest that has left at least 40 people dead.
A week after Buddhist-Muslim clashes erupted, a mosque was torched in Nattalin town, 150km north of the country’s commercial hub of Yangon, a police official who did not want to be named said.
A Nattalin resident said police were overwhelmed as a mob arrived in the town, setting fire to the mosque before leaving.
“About 200 villagers came to the town last night. But the police could not control the mob... they destroyed the mosque and some houses. Then they left,” the resident said on condition of anonymity.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on three other towns, state media reported, as authorities tried to quell the violence, which flared last Wednesday in Meiktila, 130km north of capital Naypyidaw.
Since then rioting has crept closer to Yangon, prompting the United States to warn against travelling to parts of the country.
