Piles of bricks and soda water bottles collected overnight held police at bay for hours in the riot-hit pockets of the city on Wednesday.

The area around Muslim Orphanage School on Ripon Street was a stronghold of rioters. Around 2pm, about 50 men were piling bricks there from a nearby construction site. The bricks were being promptly hurled at the advancing policemen.

“We need more. Find out other construction sites and bring bricks here. You never know how many we’ll need. It’s going to be a long battle,” cried a man in his 30s.

Another group of youths was mobilised to collect soda water bottles from shops for use as ammunition.

“We had decided last night that we would organise a chakka jam from 9am to 9pm and did our homework. Bricks from construction sites were being piled up since last night,” said a rioter, who identified himself as Shaukat Hussain.

The plan was to attack the policemen as soon as they tried to intervene. “We were asked to hurl bricks and bottles indiscriminately and not let the cops enter the lanes,” added Hussain.

Another man said: “Our men are waiting with bricks and soda water bottles on building roofs to attack the policemen. They will have to retreat.”

Processions from several parts of the city, including Kidderpore, Garden Reach, Phoolbagan and CIT Road, converged on the Ripon Street-Elliot Road crossing around 9.30am. The processions consisted mostly of teenagers.

“We had planned to stop the convoy of the chief minister on its way from the Alimuddin Street CPM headquarters to Writers’ Buildings,” claimed another man.

Rowdies and criminals joined the rioters to fight the police. “The men were given alcohol in the morning so they could fight all day,” said the leader of a group.

“We have been asking the state government for a long time to throw Taslima Nasreen out. Today, we decided to send a message across,” said Naushad Alam, a rioter.

“It was a planned attack,” said police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti in the evening.