YANGON, Jul 3 (AP): Buddhist mobs on motorbikes drove through the city of Mandalay throwing stones at mosques and Muslim-owned shops in a second night of violence that left at least two people dead, authorities said Thursday.
One victim was identified as a Muslim man, said U Tin Aung, a Muslim official who was arranging his funeral. Residents said the man was believed to have been on his way to a mosque before dawn Thursday when he was attacked by the mob and left dead in the street.
The second fatality was a Buddhist, according to a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Details of his death were being investigated.
Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation, has been grappling with sectarian violence since 2012 that has left up to 280 people dead and another 140,000 homeless, most of them Muslims attacked by extremist Buddhists. Most of the violence has taken place in western Rakhine state.
But the aggression that started Tuesday night in Mandalay, in central Myanmar, is the worst sectarian violence the country's second-largest city has faced. The violence has raised fears of wider bloodshed in Mandalay, a historic center of Buddhist culture that has large communities of both Buddhists and Muslims who have traditionally lived peacefully together.
The violence initially started Tuesday following rumors that the Muslim owner of a teashop had raped a Buddhist woman, said Khin Maung Oo, secretary of the city's Myanmar Muslim Youth Religious Convention Center. Police did not immediately confirm or deny the alleged rape but said they were tipped off that the teashop might be attacked and told the owner to close early.
BBC report adds: A curfew has been imposed in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay, following two nights of violence in which local police say two men died.
Reports say a Buddhist man died after being slashed with a sword by Muslims and that another man, a Muslim, was killed on his way to dawn prayers.
Four people have now been arrested.
The clashes erupted on Tuesday evening after Buddhist gangs damaged Muslim shops and a mosque, leaving five people hurt.
They was sparked by a claim that spread on social media that a Buddhist woman had been raped by one or more Muslim men.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher says hundreds of riot police were deployed for a second night on Wednesday as Buddhist mobs - made up of mainly young men - continued to roam the city attacking vehicles as well as shops and mosques.
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