Indian town tense after communal clashes


BANGALORE, India (Reuters) -- Hundreds of police patrolled the streets of a southern Indian city on Saturday after about 50 people were wounded in Hindu-Muslim clashes over the slaughter of livestock, including cows, which Hindus revere.

Riots erupted in the coastal city of Mangalore, about 320 km (200 miles) west of the IT hub of Bangalore on Wednesday, after a group of right-wing Hindus intercepted a vehicle carrying cows and buffaloes to an abattoir, local media reported.

Many shops were set ablaze and members of both communities pelted each other with stones. No deaths were reported but 50 people were wounded. A curfew has been imposed. "The situation is tense but under control," senior police officer B. Dayanand told Reuters. "We have deployed additional forces in all the sensitive areas."

More than 200 people had been taken into custody, he said.