Fresh horror in India as three are killed trying to protect a young woman from harassment... and then 26 die in the riots that followed

Violent riots in northern India kills 26 people on Sunday



Clashes sparked by killings of three men who defended a woman

Escalated after attack on Hindu farmers demanding justice for the men



Violent riots has killed 26 people in northern India after Hindu and Muslim groups turned on each other with guns and knives to settle a street brawl.

The riots were sparked by the killings of three villagers who had stepped in to defend a young woman being harrassed in Kawal, Uttar Pradesh state last week.



Anger has brewed in the area since the incident, but the violence turned deadly on Sunday when a journalist, a police photographer and several villagers die as a result of the violence.

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Street violence: Hundreds of troops were deployed to areas of Uttar Pradesh to quell deadly riots and clashes between Hindus and Muslims

Innocent victims: Young children lie in a hospital bed after being injured in the deadly clashes in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh

Anger: Military police argue with rioters after riots between two communities in Muzaffarnagar, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh

Over two dozen people died from their injuries received during Saturday's clashes in Muzaffarnagar district, after which the violence spread to several neighbouring villages.



The Government has responded by deploying hundreds of troops to quell the riots and search the area for weapons, while a state of high alert has been declared for Uttar Pradesh, an area home to 200 million people.



'A curfew has been imposed in three riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar,' said the head of the state's home ministry, R.M. Srivastava.



'The situation is still very tense, but under control'



Clashes: The bodies of some of the 19 victims of the weekend's riots are lined up at the district hospital at Muzaffarnagar after the weekend's violent riots Injuries: A teenage boy and a young girl have been caught up in the riots and are receiving treatment in hospital

Police said the attack on the Hindu attendees of the meeting appeared well planned, as the assailants were armed The weekend's violence escalated after an attack on thousands of Hindu farmers who had met to demand justice for the three men

Violence broke out Saturday afternoon after thousands of Hindu farmers held a meeting in Kawal village to demand justice in the August 27 killing of three men who had spoken out when a woman was being verbally harassed.



The state's minority welfare minister, Mohammad Azam Khan, said attendees had been giving speeches calling for Muslims to be killed in response to the death of the three villagers.

The farmers were set upon as they were returning home after the meeting, senior police official Arun Kumar said, adding that the assailants appeared to have planned their attack as they were armed with 'rifles and sharp-edged weapons.'

Gunfire was reported from several areas of the village. Within hours clashes broke out in neighboring villages, Kumar said.



Lock down: The government sent in military police to enforce a curfew in the entire state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 200million

Indian broadcast journalist Rajesh Verma of news channel IBN 7 was shot in the chest while covering a communal demonstration in Abupura, and died at the scene.

Uttar Pradesh was at the heart of some of India's worst communal clashes in December 1992, after a Hindu mob razed the 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The government has warned that India is seeing a rise in communal violence, with 451 incidents reported already this year, compared with 410 for all of 2012.