Police in Bangladesh have arrested four Islamic clerics after a teenage girl accused of having a relationship with a married man was whipped to death.

The clerics were accused of ordering Mosammet Hena, 14, to receive 100 lashes in a fatwa, or religious edict, at a village in south-western Shariatpur district, the area's police chief, AKM Shahidur Rahman, said. The area is 35 miles from the capital, Dhaka.

Fatwas are illegal in Bangladesh, but Islamic clerics sometimes preside over courts that use sharia law and issue fatwas to deal with issues such as extramarital relationships.

Rahman said the girl collapsed after she was lashed in public with a bamboo cane about 70 times on Monday. She was taken to a hospital where she died the same day.

The police chief said the 40-year-old man with whom Hena was allegedly involved was also sentenced to 100 lashes, but fled. "We are hunting for the man," he said.