Extra police are patrolling the streets in the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, to stop further rioting after civil unrest and looting broke out on Friday and continued over the weekend.

The increase in patrol units comes after buildings were set alight, with several stores looted as residents reportedly grow frustrated over a lack of government action in the wake of the floods.

Acting police commissioner Juanita Matanga says she has launched a major security operation, sending a number of police units to reinforce patrols in Honiara and surrounding communities.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs has upgraded its travel advice, saying that after disturbances and looting this weekend, Australians should exercise a high degree of caution in Honiara due to the risk of further disturbances.

It recommends against travelling at night.

In a statement to the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation, Matanga said police were now more prepared to tackle civil disorder.

She said they were using all available resources and were not taking any chances.

Matanga called on people to stay at home and said the police operation would continue during the weekend.

Solomon Islands police say they have been able to track down and identify a number of suspects and they have made several arrests after breaking up more incidents overnight.

The head of the National Disaster Management Office, Lote Yates, says he understands that shortly after dark on Friday, a crowd of more than 400 people started looting an area near the King George VI secondary school. A series of shops were burned down.

“The crowd went on to chop down trees along the driveways close to the school as well as the Solomon Islands national university and that resulted in the deployment of the police riot squad to curb the unrest,” he said.

“This went on until two or three o’clock in the morning until police finally managed to take control and have the rioters driven back to the area where they are mostly residing.”

Yates says he understands many rioters were from the Lunga River and Burns Creek area, east of the city.

Six weeks ago, Honiara and the eastern plains of the island of Guadalcanal were devastated by floods that left 23 people dead. Between 50,000 and 60,000 people – half the island’s population – were left homeless.

Thousands of people had to live in evacuation centres and there are still more than 4000 people living in 10 facilities.

There has been increasing tension over the distribution of aid and the slow pace of resettlement.

Yates says he understands some of the rioters were flood victims who are unhappy with the government’s relief programme.

“Unfortunately when people don’t agree with what we are doing, these sorts of things happen,” he said. “Apparently one of the issues that they raised is unfair distribution of relief.

“We have to follow certain criteria for support – therefore we have to adhere to those criteria which somehow makes people not happy.”

A group for victims of the recent flooding disaster in Solomon Islands’ Guadalcanal province have distanced themselves from claims that victims were behind rioting and looting in east Honiara.

Redley Raramo, the president of a national advocacy organisation, the Forum Solomon Islands International, says opportunists appear to have been involved in the trouble.

“It seems that it’s not the victims alone. This was confirmed last night by the committee responsible for the victims, saying they were not part of this looting and this organised sort of thing.”

Local people said on Sunday tension had eased, and with more numbers on the streets the police had better control of the area.