HYDERABAD (India), Nov 16: Police fired in the air and used batons on Thursday to disperse rioting protesters who had clashed over a razed mosque in Tadipatri, a town in southern India, wounding at least 25.

One of the groups had set municipal vehicles on fire and stoned houses of local politicians, said local police chief Stephan Ravindra.

Congress supporters retaliated, throwing two small homemade bombs at the mob before police intervened by firing five shots in the air and charging the crowd with batons, Ravindra said.

Twenty-five people were injured, some of them in the clashes and some when police charged the rioters, he said.Tadipatri is some 450kms south of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.

Authorities demolished the mosque to make way for a highway after receiving the go-ahead from the courts.—AP