MEDAN, Indonesia -- Indonesia's ethnic Chinese community, so often the target of mob violence in the Muslim-majority nation, is counting the cost once more after three days of riots in the city of Medan.

Weeks of student protests in Medan against President Suharto and the country's economic crisis deteriorated into riots this week after the government announced gasoline, transport and electricity price rises in line with reforms agreed with the International Monetary Fund.

Mobs of thousands roamed the streets, setting vehicles ablaze and looting and burning shops and warehouses, most of them owned by ethnic Chinese.

Medan's Waspada newspaper quoted hospital sources as saying six people were killed, at least four of them ethnic Chinese trapped in burning shops or houses.

Army chief and Defense Minister Wiranto said Thursday nobody had died.

Ethnic Chinese sources reported more than 10 dead and said at least 1,000 businesses belonging to members of the community had been looted or burned.

Medan, a commodities trading city of two million people, was comparatively peaceful Thursday, although there were sporadic looting attempts. But troops were out in strength and quickly stopped them.

Ethnic Chinese said the pain would linger.

``It's traumatic and saddening,'' said Sofyan Tan, a Chinese businessman who is a local leader of the community. ``The situation is very bad...like it was in 1966.''

Indonesia's anti-communist pogrom of the mid-1960s was one of the worst massacres in modern world history. Hundreds of thousands, some say up to half a million, suspected communists, many of them ethnic Chinese, were killed after what the government has called a failed coup by the now-banned Communist Party of Indonesia.

Over the past few days, many of Medan's ethnic Chinese have fled abroad or sought refuge in city hotels. Airport officials say flights out of Medan to Singapore and Malaysia are fully booked. Ethnic Chinese carrying hastily-packed plastic bags of belongings could be seen checking into city hotels.

``If you're rich, you leave the country,'' said Tan. ``If you are comparatively well off, you go to a hotel. If you are poor, you stay and fight.''

In many areas of the city, ethnic Chinese formed defense squads to guard their properties and witnesses said they saw men in motorcycle helmets and carrying sticks standing in front of shops Tuesday night.

One ethnic Chinese man showed a Reuters reporter jerry-cans filled with nitric acid which he had stored in his home.

``I live in a Muslim-dominated area,'' he said. ``So far my neighbors have been good to me, but if any mobs attack my house, I will defend myself.''

Ethnic Chinese are an easy target in Indonesia because of their visible affluence and control of the retail trade. They make up only a fraction of the population of 200 million people, but dominate is commerce.

Many Indonesians also view them as being sympathetic to the Suharto government, especially because some of the president's closes allies are affluent ethnic Chinese businessmen.

Tan, 39, said he was born in Medan and fully supported demands for political reform. ``I don't feel different from any other Indonesian. But I feel I do face discrimination,'' he said.

In one riot-hit street of the city, about a dozen shops out of a row of 30 had their iron shutters torn aside and the interiors gutted.

Those spared had notices saying ``Milik Pribumi'' pasted on the front, which means ``Owned by a Native Indonesian.''

``They are targets because of the income gap, not because they are Chinese,'' one man in the area said, adding there was popular anger against the more affluent because of the economic crisis. ``It's not a racist thing.''