Two persons died and three were injured when an e-rickshaw and a pick-up van collided head on at Samsi under Pukhuria police station jurisdiction in Malda district on Thursday morning.

One deceased person has been identified as Irfan Ali, 65, a resident of Ruimari in the Ratua block of the district. The other person is yet to be identified.

Police sources said the e-rickshaw was going to Gobindapara, a locality in Samsi, with four passengers when the van rammed into it. Local people took the injured to a local hospital. Doctors pronounced two passengers dead, while the remaining three have been referred to Malda Medical College and Hospital. Police have seized the van but the driver has escaped.

At Par-Patiram in the Balurghat block of South Dinajpur district, violence broke out near the Atrayee river bridge on Thursday after a truck mowed down a local resident on NH512.

Local people raised a road blockade and torched the truck. As police reached the spot, the demonstrators threw stones at them and also attacked two police vehicles and a police ambulance.

The deceased, police said, has been identified as Haripada Sarkar, 45, a resident of Colonypara in Patiram. He was a hawker.

Bangladeshis arrested

Kaliachak police in Malda arrested two Bangladeshi nationals from Mosimpur village on Wednesday night.

The police have also arrested a man for letting the foreigners stay at his house.

The police said Ebrahim Ali and Firoj Hossain had infiltrated into India on January 3. Since then, they had been staying at the house of Batasu Sheikh.