South Korean riot police with water cannon have stormed the country's most important Buddhist temple, evicting about one-hundred dissident monks who'd barricaded themselves inside for more than a month.

The monks fought back with petrol bombs, and some were taken away bleeding as the police, with thousands of reinforcements standing by, battled to win control of the temple.

Smoke was seen rising from the building.

The dissident monks had ousted a rival faction at the Chogye temple in Seoul, in a dispute over who manages South Korean Buddhist funds worth many millions of dollars.

There were later skirmishes between police and bystanders, some of them women, who were supporting the dissidents.