Bahrain Mirror (AFP): Bahraini police on Thursday fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who were trying to march on the capital from a Shiite village, witnesses said.

They said the demonstrators set off from the village of Diya and wanted to head to Manama's Pearl Square, where more than five years ago authorities crushed anti-government protests.

Police blocked the road leading from the village to the nearby capital and fired tear gas and warning shots to force the demonstrators to retreat, said the witnesses who spoke by telephone to AFP in Dubai.

The protest came after a ceremony to mark Ashura, and many of the demonstrators wore black in mourning for the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

The witnesses, who declined to be identified for security reasons, said protesters chanted slogans hostile to the Sunni rulers of Shiite majority Bahrain.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or arrests.

Hundreds of Shiites have been arrested and put on trial since security forces backed by Saudi-led troops crushed in March 2011 month-long protests that demanded democratic reforms.