Sixty soldiers ran amok in a village, setting off smoke grenades, damaging property and injuring two people, a report said today.

The 15-minute rampage in the village in Melaka was believed to have been triggered by a fight between a soldier and a local villager, the New Straits Times said.

The daily said the soldier was beaten up after his car crashed into a villager's fence and an argument ensued over compensation.

The next day, the soldier returned to the village with 60 others from the Terendak army camp in an army truck, cars and motorcycles.

Armed with chains, helmets and sticks, the mob threw two smoke grenades into a food stall, smashed windows and doors of a villager's house and a car windscreen, injuring an off-duty policeman and a civilian in the process, the daily said.

Madmen

"They were acting like madmen, smashing up everything and chasing people. Those who tried to flee were chased into their homes," villager Supiah Kasan was quoted as saying.

Police said they have identified the suspects who could be charged for rioting with weapons, an offence which carries up to five years in jail.

The rampage is the third such incident in the state in four years. In 1999, some 120 soldiers armed with iron rods and sticks combed another village for hours searching for a youth said to have beaten up a soldier. They left only after police intervened.

In February last year, police arrested eight soldiers, believed to have been drunk, after they became rowdy and threatened to start a fight with local residents. - AFP