Tunisian police fired tear gas and warning shots as they clashed with a group of hardline Salafi Muslims in the northwestern town of Jendouba on Wednesday, the TAP news agency reported.

It is the latest episode in the worst wave of unrest rocking the country since strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's ouster last year after a popular uprising.

The clashes erupted between police and army units and club-wielding Salafis at a mosque in the town after the ultra-conservative Muslims attacked a police official, security sources told TAP.

One man has been killed and around 100 people wounded, including 65 policemen, in a wave of rioting which appears to have been triggered by an art exhibition that included works deemed offensive to Islam.

Ultra-conservative Salafis, who advocate practicing Islam as it was by the prophet Mohammed, were blamed for destroying art work deemed "blasphemous" at an exhibition in northern Tunis on Sunday.

The incident sparked clashes across the country Monday and Tuesday that saw police stations and political party offices torched, in the worst violence since the January 2011 revolution.