Bahrain has been hit by rioting in majority Shia areas for a fifth consecutive day, according to local press reports.
Security forces used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators in Shia villages, leaving one protester dead on Monday.
Local media reports say 39 people have been arrested and around a dozen injured in the clashes.
The island has a Sunni ruling family but a Shia majority population.
The 22-year-old man died in hospital after inhaling teargas, according to opposition activists.
Bahrain has been hit by rioting in majority Shia areas for a fifth consecutive day, according to local press reports.
Security forces used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators in Shia villages, leaving one protester dead on Monday.
Local media reports say 39 people have been arrested and around a dozen injured in the clashes.
The island has a Sunni ruling family but a Shia majority population.
The 22-year-old man died in hospital after inhaling teargas, according to opposition activists.
But security sources cited by the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA) maintain that the protester died of natural causes.
Petrol bombs
Some 500 demonstrators threw petrol bombs and stones at security forces in the north of the island on Thursday, according to Bahraini media reports.
The Al-Wasat newspaper on Sunday reported a statement by the independent Bahrain Human Rights Association that security forces had made 39 arrests and around a dozen people had been injured during the demonstrations.
Monday’s protest was staged by Shias reportedly demanding compensation for what they said were victims of human rights violations between 1980 and 1990.
Al-Ayyam daily said that the number of arrests “does not exceed 20 people”.
It quoted an interior ministry official as saying those detained were accused of “setting fire to a police car and stealing weapons in the Jid Hafs area”.
The Haq, or Movement of Liberties and Democracy, said in a statement sent to AFP news agency that the security forces continued arresting young Bahrainis on Sunday morning in several Shia villages west of the capital, Manama.
Al-Wasat printed a statement by the main Shia movement in the Gulf archipelago, the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), in which it called on the interior ministry to “stop these illegal and inhuman actions… and free the detainees immediately”.