Bani Jamrah, Bahrain  - Clashes erupted Friday between Bahraini anti-riot police and protesters demanding the release of 40 detainees in the mainly Shiite village of Bani Jamarah, north of the capital Manama.

At least three people were injured, including an eight-year-old boy who was believed to have been hit in the left foot with a rubber bullet.

Unrest quickly spread to the villages of Sanabis and Daih, on the outskirts of Manama, and continued late into the night.

The clashes began after scores of supporters and relatives of the 40 detainees - who had been arrested between December 2007 and this October - gathered to call for their unconditional release.

Relatives of the detainees said they had been arrested because they were political activists, adding that they had been ill-treated by police to extract confessions.

Nineteen detainees have been accused of involvement in an April attack on an unmarked anti-riot police car that led to the death of a Pakistani policeman and injured two others. The attack took place while police were patrolling the Shiite village of Karzakan.

Last July, a Bahraini criminal court sentenced 11 others to jail for their role in December clashes where a police car was gutted and a machine gun was stolen. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to seven years.

Key opposition parties have called the trials "politically motivated," but the government maintains that all those facing charges had been arrested for breaking the law. (dpa)