Guwahati, July 27: Bullets smashed into a Santro travelling through Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, narrowly missing its two civilian occupants, as forest guards and suspected poachers exchanged fire last evening on a highway that cuts across the rhino homeland.

Altogether four vehicles — a truck, a Bolero, the Santro and an Alto — were hit by bullets when they were caught in the crossfire around 7pm.

At least five bullets pierced the Santro, three hitting the dashboard and two zipping through the windshield.

The owner of the Santro, Brojen Handique, told The Telegraph today: “There were two vehicles in front of me, a truck and a Bolero. Suddenly I saw the two vehicles swerve as if the drivers had lost control. Almost simultaneously, something hit the dashboard of my vehicle and the windshield cracked.”

Handique, who was on his way to Jorhat from Guwahati, around 210km from the spot, stopped at Bokakhat police station and filed a complaint. It is not known whether the other three vehicles suffered any damage as they did not lodge any police complaint.

Handique suspects that the Alto, which was right behind his vehicle, was also hit by bullets as it, too, appeared to have lost control momentarily.

He said he had no idea about the damage to the other vehicles but had to replace the windshield of his car today, before returning to Guwahati. “At least three bullets are still embedded in the dashboard.”

The sub-divisional police officer of Bokakhat, Nabin Singh, said he wasn’t sure if the other three vehicles were “also hit” as their owners hadn’t reported to the police yet.

The director of the park, S.N. Buragohain, said rangers spotted four persons in the Burapahar range near National Highway 37 around 7pm.

“When they were asked to stop, the suspected poachers fired at the rangers and fled southwards towards the Karbi Anglong hills, crossing the national highway. The forest rangers returned fire but the poachers escaped,” he added.

A bag of salt, generally used to lure rhinos, and empty cartridges of .303 rifles were later found at the spot.

Handique said bullets were fired from both sides of the national highway. “More bullets came from the Karbi Anglong side but there was firing from inside Kaziranga also.”

Another forest official at Kaziranga said at least one poacher was injured in the gun battle. Police and forest personnel have launched a joint operation to catch the poachers.