At least 24 people have been killed and 40 others injured during clashes between police and squatters in the northern Indian town of Mathura.

Clashes broke out on Thursday as police tried to evict several thousand former members of a religious sect who had occupied a public park for two years.

Two senior police officers were among those killed overnight.

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Members of the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi (Free India Legal Ideas Revolutionary Protesters) have been occupying Mathura's largest public park Jawahar Bagh for two years.

Reports say the group is headed by Ramvriksha Singh Yadav, but very little is known about him.

Members of the group earlier followed religious guru Baba Jai Gurudev, but since his death in 2012 some had started calling themselves "revolutionaries" and claimed to be followers of Indian independence hero Subhas Chandra Bose.

The group has been making radical demands such as declaring the Indian parliament and the posts of prime minister and president unconstitutional.

They also want the authorities to sell fuel at dirt-cheap prices. In their view 40 litres of petrol or 60 litres of diesel should cost just 1 rupee (about 1.5 cents; one penny).