AHMEDABAD, (India), Sept 21: At least four people were killed and 40 injured in Hindu-Muslim clashes in the riot-torn Indian state of Gujarat, police said on Saturday.

A senior police official said security reinforcements were being rushed to the city of Vadodara, more than 120 kilometres south of here, following the overnight clashes between Hindu and Muslim mobs.

“We have beefed up security in the city today. We have around 2,000 policemen and 1,100 paramilitary personnel patrolling the streets,” city Joint Police Commissioner P. C. Thakre said by telephone.

He said more elite anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) troopers were expected to reach the city later Saturday.

“We have called in for two more companies (200 men) of the RAF which will arrive by night as that is when the anti-social elements get active,” Thakre said. Some 110 rioters were arrested after Friday’s sectarian skirmishes, he said.

Meanwhile, four people were seriously injured on Saturday when a bomb exploded in a passenger bus in the communally-disturbed district of Kheda, a police spokesman said in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat.

Friday’s riots began when a Hindu religious procession clashed with Muslims spilling out of a mosque in Vadodara’s Fatehpura district. It soon spread to other parts, prompting the police to open fire to quell the violence.

A police spokesman said it was unclear whether the four died in the police firing or in the rioting. Around 40 people, including a police head constable, were injured.

Residents said three of those killed were Muslims.

“The clashes first erupted in the Fatehpura area when a religious procession from a Hindu locality was passing by a mosque where Muslims had gathered for Friday prayers,” said police officer Thakre. “The city is still tense.”

Friday marked the Ganesh Chathurthy Hindu festival that involves processionists carrying idols of the Hindu god Ganesh and immersing them in rivers or into the sea at the end of the day.

Thakre said that because of the festival which saw a large number of processions all over the city, a curfew could not be imposed until late Friday night as processionists were yet to immerse the idols.—AFP