DUBAI, Apr 21, 2012 (AFP) - A dead man's body was found in a Shiite village where Bahraini security forces put down an overnight protest, Bahrain's largest Shiite opposition bloc Al-Wefaq said on Saturday.

In what would be the first death in protests coinciding with the controversial Formula One Grand Prix, "the body of martyr Salah Abbas Habib" was found in Shakhura.

The body of the man "in his 30s, was found lying ... at a farm" in the village, where security forces had "chased and attacked peaceful protesters brutally beating some of them with various tools and weapons," Al-Wefaq said.

In a statement on social networking website Twitter, the interior ministry confirmed that "the body of a deceased person was found in Shakhura today. Police have begun an investigation."

But it remained unclear how Habib had died.

One of his relatives, contacted by AFP, said that "Salah was taking part in the protest in Shakhura Friday, and was arrested by security forces while other protesters managed to flee."

"We knew nothing about him" after the protest "until we were told that his body was found on Saturday morning," the family member said on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses told AFP that security forces fired tear gas and sound bombs to disperse dozens of people who gathered at the area where Habib's body was found.

Late on Friday, protesters clashed with riot police in Bahrain when dozens took to the streets in several Shiite villages, witnesses said.

Security forces fired tear gas and sound bombs to disperse the demonstrators, some of whom responded by hurling petrol bombs and stones, the sources said, adding that the clashes were "violent."

Shiite-led protests have intensified in Bahrain, site of a month-long uprising that was crushed last year, since its Sunni rulers insisted on going ahead with the Grand Prix despite pressure to call it off.

The February 14 Youth Movement has called on social networking sites for "three days of rage" to coincide with the race, which will be held on Sunday.

Al-Wefaq has called for a week of daily protests during the event to focus media attention on their long-standing demands for reforms.

The Bahrain event was cancelled last year in the wake of and uprising and the government crackdown that followed in which a government commission said 35 people were killed.

lyn/dv