PATNA - MORE than 50 people were arrested and about a dozen injured in clashes with police in eastern India on Saturday in protests against attacks on migrants in the financial hub of Mumbai, police said.

Protesters vandalised railway stations, blocked rail and road traffic and caused shops to shut down in the eastern state of Bihar, as police struggled to control street violence for a sixth day in a row.

Migrant workers from Bihar said they were attacked and thrown out of Mumbai over the last week by supporters of the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS), a militant Hindu group.

Protesters in one district of Bihar squatted on railways lines and unscrewed the engine of a passenger train, demanding the punishment of the MNS leader, who was arrested on Tuesday for rioting and provoking attacks on migrants but later released on bail.

The protesters were later dispersed by baton-wielding police.

'The protesters tried to take possession of a train engine and blocked railway lines but we have driven them away', senior police official Rajesh Kumar told Reuters.

Many residents chose to stay indoors as the violence caused banks, businesses and schools to shut down.

The MNS is fuelling anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of national and local elections due next year and trying to hold on to its Marathi support, some political commentators say.

That in turn has provoked tit-for-tat violence in northern and eastern India, a sign of the strains that inequality is placing on society as parts of the country's economy booms. -- REUTERS