Police fired tear gas to disperse mobs of rioting Hindus and Muslims who burned nearly 70 shops in a small town in central India on Tuesday after Muslim butchers slaughtered eight cows, which are sacred to Hindus, police said.
No injuries or deaths were reported.
Armed police separated the rival groups and imposed a ban on the assembly of more than five people in the town of Ganj Basoda, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state.
Authorities also set a night curfew and deployed extra security forces, police spokesman S. Dixit said.
Muslim butchers slaughtered the cows overnight in a predominantly Muslim area, defying a ban on cow slaughter in the state, a police officer speaking on condition of anonymity said when reached by phone.
Nearly 1,000 Hindus arrived in the area on Tuesday morning as word spread about the cow slaughter, the officer said.
Police recovered eight skins and one severed cow head from the home of one of the butchers, the officer said.
Police detained the man and his family.
Most of the shops burned belonged to Muslims, but Muslims also set some Hindu shops ablaze in retaliation, the officer said. At least 10 motorcycle scooters belonging to people of both communities were damaged in the rioting.
Madhya Pradesh is one of a few of India's 29 states that have banned cow slaughter, prompting traders to carry cattle across state lines to slaughter houses.
India's Hindu majority reveres cows, but beef is served in some restaurants and hotels in big cities, and eaten by members of other religions.