MOMBASA, Kenya --Arsonists set fire to a popular nightclub in Kenya's Indian Ocean city of Mombasa early Friday, partially destroying it, only two days after a similar attack on another European-owned nightspot, police told AFP.

The Mamba discotheque, an international nightclub exclusively owned by an Austrian national was attacked at around 12:40 A.M. (2140 GMT) by unknown assailants.

"One of the workers noticed smoke in the disco hall, when everybody had left. They tried to put it out, but it quickly spread to the palm leaves-thatched roof," Mombasa Police Chief Gerald Oluoch told AFP by telephone from Mombasa.

The damage was minimized by a rapid response from a combined force of municipal, Kenyan Navy and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) fire engines, Oluoch said.

Nothing was immediately known about the extent of the damage.

Unknown arsonists on Wednesday petrol-bombed the Tembo discotheque, another European-owned international nightspot in Mombasa, destroying property estimated at around 50 million shillings (about 634,000 dollars/euros).

Oluoch did not rule out a business conflict between the two European-run businesses as a reason for the attacks.

Mombasa has been in the spotlight since November 28, when three suicide bombers rammed an explosive-packed vehicle into the lobby of the Israeli-owned Paradise Mombasa Hotel, killing 11 Kenyans, three Israelis and themselves.

Five minutes earlier, two shoulder-fired missiles were fired at an Israeli airplane as it took off from Mombasa Airport with 261 tourists on board, but narrowly missed the target.