Buildings are on fire in the Burmese city of Meikhtila after fierce clashes between Buddhists and Muslims left several people dead and reduced communities to ashes.
Up to 25 people have been killed in three days of fighting that erupted after an argument between a Buddhist couple and the Muslim owners of a gold shop escalated into a riot involving hundreds of people.
Burma's president has declared a state of emergency in areas of the country affected by the violence.
Firemen battle to extinguish a burning building in Meikhtila Meikhtila residents have been arming themselves with knives and sticks after rumours that violent agitators were heading for the city set its Muslim community on edge.
Hundreds of Muslims have reportedly now fled their homes to shelter in the city's sports stadium after complaints of too few police and reports of groups of Buddhists roaming the streets.
At least one mosque, an Islamic school, shops and a government office were set alight, according to a fire service official. Both Buddhist and Muslim homes were set on fire.
"I am really sad over what happened here because this is not just happening to one person. It's affecting all of us," said Maung Maung, a Buddhist ward leader in Meikhtila.
"Everyone is in shock here. We never expected this to happen," said a Muslim teacher in Mandalay.
A journalist saw the incinerated remains of two victims on a roadside, just one of several reports of bodies in the town, as flames raged from torched mosques and houses while other buildings smouldered unattended.
"The situation is getting worse," a local resident said. "People are destroying buildings. Many people have been killed. We are scared and trying to stay safe at home."
A group of reporters were stopped at knife-point by a gang of young men and monks and forced to hand over their camera memory cards, according to one of the journalists.
Muslims fearing for their safety flee to the city's sports stadium The United Nations has warned the violence could endanger a fragile reform programme launched after Burma's quasi-civilian reformist government replaced 49 years of military dictatorship in 2011.
Political activists have since been released from prison and free elections have been held in the country's historic transition to democracy.
But the new government has faced criticism over its failure to contain simmering ethnic tensions which were suppressed and under-reported by years of military rule.
In 2012 pitched battles between Buddhists and Muslims escalated into orchestrated attacks on Muslim communities by organised gangs of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
Burma is a predominantly Buddhist country, but about 5% of its 60 million people are Muslims and there are large Muslim communities in Yangon and Mandalay, its two largest cities.
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