Looters trigger brawl in Cikini

Looters trigger brawl in Cikini

JAKARTA: A group of thugs looted a street vendor's merchandise
on Jl. Cikini, Central Jakarta, in front of Bung Karno University
early on Sunday morning and sparked off a brawl.

The vendor, Tedjo, said the thugs had come from Jl. Anyer,
which is located about five kilometers way, at 12.30 a.m., and
began stealing his merchandise. As the situation got worse,
vendors in the area began to chase the thugs by throwing stones
and other solid objects at them.

"I don't really know who they are and why they did it but they
came from Jl. Anyer," said 24-year-old Tedjo, who suffered a loss
of Rp 2 million (US$196), as quoted by Antara.

Deputy chief of Menteng police precinct Adj. Sr. Comr. M.
Syarifin said the police were still investigating the motive of
the thugs.

"It happened so fast. By the time we got there, the people had
run away," he said, adding that a group of police had been
deployed to handle the incident. No casualties were reported. --
JP