DHAKA: Three people were killed and nearly a dozen injured in West Bengal's Birbhum district during violent clashes between alleged supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP, ndtv.com reports on Tuesday. 

Video footage aired on channels showed scores of armed assailants running through paddy fields in Makra village and firing indiscriminately from country-made guns. Several suffered bullet injuries; three of them reportedly died at a local hospital. Several houses were also set on fire.

No arrests have been made so far with both Trinamool and the BJP trading charges over yesterday's violence.

Questions are now being raised over the police's alleged failure to contain the violence. Cops allegedly were unable to enter the village till at least two hours after the deaths happened.

The area had been witnessing tension over the last few days. On October 24, a police party was attacked with bombs, sticks and bricks by alleged BJP supporters when they raided Chakmondola village, seven kilometres away from Makra, following reports of bombs stored at a health centre.

Earlier, the police team had seized several plastic drums full of crude bombs from the health centre at a nearby village.

BDST: 1113 HRS, OCT 28, 2014