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