This shocking footage shows the moment a violent sword fight breaks out as Sikhs clash over who should speak first at their holiest temple.

Six people were injured in the scuffle on the steps of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, as the two sides in blue and saffron turbans chased each other yelling battle cries and lashing out with their weapons.

The conflict kicked off as the disciples gathered to remember the hundreds killed in a massacre when Indian troops stormed the building in the hunt for separatists 30 years ago.

They had united to mourn those killed in operation Blue Star where authorities hunted radicals who wanted a separate Sikh state in the Punjab.

The troops had been sent into arrest Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers.

Hundreds died in the assault - which then led to the assassination of India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was shot by her own Sikh bodyguards.


Hundreds had gathered at the temple to mark the massacre’s anniversary, but the violence broke out when local head of a Sikh political party tried to deliver a speech from the rostrum.

Guards from the committee who run the temple tried to a stop him.

The fracas and sword battle then turned into a violent stand-off, made worse because police are not allowed inside the temple.

Prem Singh Chandumajra, spokesman for Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, said: “ We were supposed to have a solemn rememberance for the martyrs of 1984, so what has happened today is very sad.

"The temple has once again been dishoured.”