REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LASHIO - Hundreds of Muslim families sheltered in a heavily guarded Buddhist monastery on Thursday after two days of violence in the northern Myanmar city of Lashio left Muslim properties in ruins and raised alarm over a widening religious conflict.

About 1,200 Muslims were taken to Mansu Monastery after Buddhist mobs terrorised the city on Wednesday, a move that could signal the resolve of a government criticised for its slow response to previous religious violence.

The unrest in Lashio, a city about 700 km (430 miles) from Myanmar's commercial capital of Yangon, shows how far anti-Muslim violence has spread in the Buddhist-dominated country as it emerges from decades of hardline military rule. One man was killed and five people wounded in Wednesday's clashes, presidential spokesman Ye Htut said in a statement.

A senior police officer, who declined to be identified, told Reuters the dead man was a Muslim and the five injured were Buddhists, including a journalist attacked by a Buddhist mob. He said 300 soldiers and 200 police were enforcing security in Lashio, a city of 130,000 people near Myanmar's northeastern border with China.

"We were very scared"

Thein Maing, who sheltered at the monastery with his wife and six children, said they only dared leave their house when they saw soldiers patrolling the streets on Wednesday. "I approached the soldiers and said, 'We are afraid and we don't know where to go. Please help us', and they sent us here."

Khin Kyi's family hid in the house of an ethnic Chinese neighbour, while Buddhist men with sticks and swords prowled the area. "We were very scared. This has never happened before," she said, sitting amid bags of clothes in the crowded prayer hall, overlooked by statues of Buddha.

Badanta Ponnya Nanda, the head monk, said he hoped the city would be secure enough for Muslims to return to their homes within a week. "Today we need to calm everything down," he said.

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