Israeli police fired stun grenades at stone-throwing worshippers yesterday around Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, as Palestinian anger over Israeli excavations near the site burst into violence.

Around 200 police streamed onto the compound in Jerusalem's walled Old City, a flashpoint for past confrontations, and clashed with dozens of youths after mid-day prayers.

A police spokesman at the scene said 15 policemen and 17 protesters were injured, none seriously.

Seventeen people were arrested, some in the streets outside the Old City.

Dozens were stuck inside the mosque for over an hour as stone-throwers clashed with police outside on the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif.

"A lot of worshippers were injured inside the Al-Aqsa compound as a result of tear gas and stun grenades," one Palestinian said after leaving the scene. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police used stun grenades to gain control over the site and disperse between 100 and 150 youths. He said no tear gas was fired and police later withdrew from the area.

The shrine has been a trigger for past Israeli-Palestinian violence. A Palestinian uprising began in 2000 after Israel's then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon toured the hilltop area.

Israel's opening of an entrance to an archaeological tunnel near al-Haram al-Sharif in 1996 led to Palestinian protests and clashes in which 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers died.

Police estimated that 10,000 worshippers prayed at Al-Aqsa. Fearing riots, they had tried to allow access only to women and men aged over 45, but said some younger men slipped through before they set up checkpoints.