Petrol bomb hurled at Yogyakarta church

A petrol bomb has been hurled at a Roman Catholic church in the fifth attack this week on a church in Yogyakarta, police said Thursday.

The attack on the Santo Yusuf church in the Sleman district of Yogyakarta city took place early Wednesday, said a duty officer at a local police station.

He said the attack in the Central Java city caused a small fire which burned part of the front gate and the fence. No one was hurt.

Mobs attacked four churches in two neighbouring suburbs of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Sunday, slightly injuring a priest and causing some damage.

Three of those churches were in buildings in commercial areas that had no permit for use as places of worship. Such unauthorised churches have come in for attack in the past.

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-populated state, with 88 percent of its 212 million people following Islam. Some eight percent are Christians.

Islam is not the official religion and the constitution provides for freedom of worship.