Police in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state of Bahrain clashed on Sunday with Shia protesters a day after neighbouring Saudi Arabia executed a leading Shia cleric, witnesses said.

They said violence erupted in several Shia suburbs of the capital Manama, with police using tear gas and buckshot against protesters throwing petrol bombs.

On Saturday, police in Shiite-majority Bahrain again used tear gas against protesters demonstrating after the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force of protests in Saudi Arabia's east in 2011, who was among 47 people executed in the Sunni-ruled kingdom earlier in the day.