A group of people with alleged allegiance to the ruling Trinamool Congress today stormed Alipore police station in the city, ransacked it and beat up securitymen to protest against eviction of squatters.
The attackers threw brickbats at the police station and thrashed the security personnel with sticks snatched from them.
Some policemen had to take cover under a table and stack of files to save themselves from the attack as shown by some TV channels.
The situation was brought under control when additional forces, deployed soon after the attack, chased them away. No arrest has been made yet, the police said.
Alipore police station sources said that the attackers were protesting against eviction of squatters from an area near the Presidency Correctional Home for Women, close to the police station, identified for construction of a stadium.
The sources said that a drive to remove the illegal settlers had been undertaken sometime earlier, but some of them returned to occupy the area again, forcing the local administration to evict them.
This was the third incident of beating up of security men in the state, the two earlier incidents having taken place in Birbhum district, which was described as 'unprecedented' by a securityman who wished to be anonymous.
