Violence erupted on the streets of Calcutta on Friday morning after a group of extremely agitated local residents in Barisha area of Behala clashed with police following a road accident where a boy, a Class II student of the Barisha High School, was crushed under the wheels of a speeding truck.

The father of the deceased boy, Souranil Sarkar, is undergoing treatment at state-run SSKM Hospital. The accident took place around 6.30am when the boy and his father were crossing a road in the Behala Chowrasta area.

Eyewitnesses to the tragic accident, locals vandalized police vehicles and the office of the Diamond Harbour traffic guard and set them on fire, ransacked and torched private buses and two wheelers and even brick batted the armed police and Rapid Action Force personnel.

RAF personnel were deployed in large numbers, and police lathicharged protesters and fired teargas shells to bring the situation under control, sources said.

Telegraph picture

The protests led to disruption of traffic on the busy Diamond Harbour Road, a police officer said.

The errant truck, which was transporting mud, was later apprehended near Santragachhi on Kona Expressway by Howrah city police who handed over its driver to their counterparts in Kolkata Police.