MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar declared martial law in four central townships on Friday after unrest between Buddhists and Muslims stoked fears that last year's sectarian bloodshed was spreading into the country's heartland in a test of Asia's newest democracy.
BURNING MOSQUE, ARMED RESIDENTS
Locals had complained there were too few police in Meikhtila to quell the unrest. It erupted after an argument between a Buddhist couple and the Muslim owners of a gold shop spiraled into a riot involving hundreds of people, said police.
Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country, but about 5 percent of its 60 million people are Muslims. There are large and long-established communities in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar's two largest cities, where tensions are simmering.
The United Nations warned the sectarian unrest could endanger a fragile reform program launched after Myanmar's quasi-civilian government replaced a decades-old military dictatorship in 2011.
In Meikhtila, at least one mosque, an Islamic religious school, several shops and a government office were set alight, said a fire service official, who declined to be identified. Reuters saw both Buddhist and Muslim homes burned.
(Writing by Andrew R.C. Marshall; Editing by Jason Szep, Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Ron Popeski)
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