In a fresh eruption of violence on Sunday, one elderly housewife was killed and  three others including a minor girl sustained serious injuries  at Nandigram, following a gunbattle between the supporters of the Farmland Eviction Resistance Committee(FERC) and their counterparts in the CPI(M), official reports received here said.

The 8-year-old girl Manu Mondol and two others were rushed to a hospital in Kolkata,  where their condition is stated to be critical, reports said. The gun battle erupted at Tekhali Bazar shortly around noon after the CPI(M) supporters allegedly took over control of the area from the FERC people, who re-grouped and retaliated to regain the lost ground.

In the two-hour battle, the 70-year-old Parvati Mitra, who was cooking, was shot in the chest while Manu Mondol who was caught in the crossfire, was hit by two bullets. Bhairab Saha, a school teacher who accidentally reached the scene suffered a heart attack and perished on the spot.