Assailants broke into a church and torched the altar overnight in Kerala, days after an attack in the southern Indian state on nuns from Mother Teresa's order, police said Thursday.
Vandals were suspected to have entered through the window of the Saint Thomas Mar Thoma Church in the state capital Trivandrum and burned curtains, chairs and the carpet at the altar, Kerala police chief Hormis Tharakan said.
He said an investigation had been launched and a special police team posted outside the church.
Local bishop Geevargheese Mar Thedosius visited the church and called for calm.
"It could be an attempt to provoke the people. I appeal to the people not to get carried away," he said.
On Saturday, three nuns and a brother of the late Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity order were roughed up by suspected Hindu militants as they headed to a low-caste Hindu neighbourhood near the Kerala city of Calicut.
The protesters alleged the order was trying to convert Hindus to Christianity.