The death toll from six days of brutal ethnic clashes in Indonesian Borneo island rose to at least 143 today as the clashes spread and Dayak tribesmen marauded in armed bands through the town.
"The number of bodies brought into hospitals and recorded is 143, but there are still many more bodies lying in the streets, many without heads," Dr Qomaruddin Sukhami said from Sampit, in the East Waringin district of Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province.
Police and residents said Dayak tribesmen armed with swords, bows and arrows and deadly blow-guns, were hunting through the streets of Sampit for Madurese settlers.
Mr Sukhami said many of the bodies had been slashed by traditional Dayak swords called mandau, and shot with poison arrows from blowguns.
He said the killings were spreading in a "triangle of violence" beyond Sampit, the district capital and main trading town, and that 65 of the bodies had been found outside the town.
A duty officer at Sampit's district military command headquarters said between 10,000 to 14,000 refugees were waiting for a navy vessel to arrive to transport them to safety.
More than 600 additional police and soldiers have been deployed to Sampit and chief security minister Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday another battalion of 650 soldiers was on its way.
AFP