Details have emerged of more violence in the Indonesian province of East Java where more than one-hundred-and-fifty people have been killed in the past two months.

Police said hundreds of people went on the rampage in the town of Pasuruan over the weekend, attacking shops, banks and cars, after the authorities refused to hand over a suspected killer.

Reinforcements had to be sent in to restore calm; the police remain on standby.

The killings are largely blamed on gangs of men, dressed in black, who are believed to have murdered black magicians and Muslim clerics.

The local population have been organising vigilante patrols.

The BBC Indonesia correspondent says there's suspicion in Jakarta that politicians may have stage-managed the violence to destabilise the politically-important province ahead of next year's parliamentary elections.