Jakarta: At least five people were arrested when a protest against planned fuel price rises turned violent in Indonesia today, witnesses and police said.

Two policemen and two students were injured in the incident in front of a university in the South Sulawesi city of Makassar, local police chief Genot Harianto told journalists.

He declined to give further details but witnesses told AFP they saw police arrest at least five students.

The protests came a day after the government announced plans to raise subsidised fuel prices to protect the state budget from the soaring cost of oil ahead of parliamentary elections next year.

Record oil prices mean the government is forking out much more than it had planned to keep the subsidised price of fuel down to levels deemed tolerable in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Senior police officer Kamarudin said eight students had been arrested in Makassar and were facing charges of vandalism, closing off a public road and disrupting public order, the Detikcom online news service reported.

The rally became violent when police tried to disband dozens of protestors who had blocked a road with burning tyres and commandeered a fuel truck, witnesses said.

The demonstrators dispersed after the arrival of paramilitary police reinforcements and armoured vehicles equipped with water cannons.

Meanwhile about 100 students from the Association of Muslim Students of Indonesia demonstrated against the planned fuel price hike in Ponorogo, East Java, but there was no reported violence, ElShinta private radio said.

Source : PTI