An armed clash between members of two rival sectarian groups left four people injured in Sumqayit, a town 30 km north of Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku,on December 11.

The injured were hospitalized with serious knife and shrapnel wounds. Seven people involved in the conflict between Salafi and "Khavariji" groups werearrested, the Ministry of Interior and the Prosector-General's Office said in a joint statement yesterday.

Nearly 60 percent of Azerbaijan’s 9.4 million population is Shiite.

Police and officers of the National Security Ministry carried out anoperation overnight to detain those involved in the clash.

Sectarian violence is rare in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran tothe south and Russia’s restive Muslim region of Dagestan to the north.

ANN.Az