A dispute between a Muslim gold shop owner and two Buddhist sellers erupted in clashes that left 10 people dead, 20 injured and four mosques burned to the ground in central Myanmar, local officials said Thursday. 

The clashes began Wednesday morning in Meiktila Township after a quarrel between the shop owner and the sellers, police said. 

The sellers were beaten up by four other Muslim shop owners, police said. 

In retaliation, Muslims and Buddhists took to the street, torching houses and schools, said Police Lt. Col. Aung Min. 

To defuse tensions, police imposed a curfew Wednesday night. 

Tension, police presence 

The death toll from the violence has risen to 10, said Win Htein, a member of parliament for the area. He described the situation as still tense despite the increased police presence. 

Win Htein, a member of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, linked the unrest to feelings stirred up by clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in western Myanmar last year. 

When police took two Muslim shop owners to court Thursday, a group of several hundred Buddhists tried to attack them and threw rocks, he said. 

Myanmar is emerging from decades of military repression to democracy, but has been plagued by bouts of ethnic violence. 

In the western state of Rakhine, tensions between the majority Buddhist community and the Rohingya -- a stateless ethnic Muslim group -- boiled over into clashes that killed scores of people and left tens of thousands of others living in makeshift camps last year. 
Who imposed the curfew?
 police imposed a curfew 