Six people were killed when Hindu and Christian mobs clashed today in eastern India, where dozens of churches have been vandalised in spiralling religious violence.
Authorities imposed a curfew in nine towns of Orissa's rural Kandhamal district in an effort to end two days of violence in which a Christian orphanage was also torched by suspected Hindu mobs angry over the murder of their leader.
Orissa officials said at least four people, including a woman, were killed in Kandhamal's Barakhama village when Hindus and Christians clashed and shot at each other.
"Police broke up the two groups and brought the situation under control," said Satyabrata Sahoo, a top administrative official said.
Two more bodies were found in a separate village in the district late today, both killed a day earlier, Kishan Kumar, administrative head of Kandhamal district said.
The deaths took the toll from two days of violence to eight, also including two people burned to death inside houses torched by Hindu crowds. More than a dozen churches have been damaged.
Violence erupted after armed men killed a Hindu leader linked to the main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and four others last week, an attack Hindus blamed on Christians.
The leader had been heading a local campaign to reconvert Hindus and tribal people from Christianity.
Local TV stations showed an angry mob vandalising a church, throwing away furniture and setting it on fire. Villagers blocked roads with logs and boulders to stop police from entering the trouble spots.
Police said Hindus attacked Christians and set their homes on fire in Kandhamal's Patingia and Matingia villages. A church was also damaged in the same district.
"A mob tried to torch a school bus but police chased them away," Pradeep Kapoor, police inspector general, said.