MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Rampaging Muslims burned down scores of hotels and bars in a northern Nigerian city in reaction to the lunar eclipse which they blamed on sinners, residents said on Wednesday.

Paramilitary police battled gangs of Muslim youths in the streets of the largely Islamic city of Maiduguri for hours on Tuesday night.

Residents said at least 40 hotels or drinking houses were set ablaze. Similar violence was reported in Barma town 50 miles (80 kilometers) away where youths chanting Allahu Akbar (God is Great) took to the streets.

"The immoral acts committed in these places are responsible for this eclipse,'' police quoted a youth leader as saying.

Religious violence has been a major problem in the largely Islamic north over the past year. Hundreds of people were killed in two bouts of Muslim-Christian bloodletting in the northern city of Kaduna over plans to introduce Islamic sharia law in the area.