Tension gripped Raikia town, after a mob attacked a catholic church, the police said.
At least 300 people broke into the church premises and smashed a number of statues of Virgin Mary and angels besides doors and glass panes, the sub-divisional police officer at Baliguda, Bhabani Shankar Patnaik, told PTI over phone.
A truck parked outside the church was also set ablaze, he said.
Several materials, pictures and clothes from the church were also brought outside by the attackers and set afire, a church leader said adding a number of tubelights were broken by the mob.
The incident occurred this afternoon after some Christians protested against the removal of a fencing erected outside the church premises to plant trees by some people.
One platoon of armed police was deployed in the church while the district collector Bijay Kumar Dhal and superintendent of police Yatindra Koel had rushed to Raikia.
The situation was tense but under control, the police said.