Students linked to rival groups have clashed at a prestigious university of Pakistan, with dozens reported hurt in the skirmishes.

Zakaria Zakir, vice chancellor at the University of Punjab, says Monday's violence began when the two groups, one linked with a radical Islamic party, the other with nationalists, attacked each other at the campus in the eastern city of Lahore.

He says students also turned on the police who were dispatched to quell the violence. Local TV footage broadcast images of police officers, bleeding from minor cuts after they were hit by stones hurled buy the students.

Zakir says the groups argued over the holding of a cultural festival at the campus.

Radical Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba party dominates the university and it has a history of clashing with rival groups.