Muzaffarpur: Rival boarders of Duke Hostel and No. 1 postgraduate hostel lobbed crude bombs at each other and opened fire on campus on Saturday morning over collecting donation for Saraswati Puja next month.

The clash turned the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University campus into battlefield and sent terrified employees behind bolted doors.

About 50 boarders from Duke Hostel of Langat Singh College raided the university's postgraduate hostel at 7am with firearms and crude bombs. Eyewitnesses said the group opened indiscriminate fire which was returned by the postgraduate boarders as well.

Eyewitnesses said the troublemakers lobbed 15 powerful crude bombs and fired 80 rounds. They said the teaching and non-teaching employees living in the quarters on the campus were terrified and didn't come out of their homes, apprehending danger.

Deputy superintendent of police (city) Ashish Anand reached the spot with Sadar police station house officer Shujauddin Khan, personnel from University police station - under whose jurisdiction the area falls - and heavy reinforcements to take stock of the situation.

The police said the boarders fled the spot, seeing the force but left behind 10 live bombs on the postgraduate hostel premises. The bomb disposal squad arrived and later defused the explosives. The police team also recovered 25 empty cartridges on the sprawling university campus.

Registrar Ajay Kumar Srivastava said: "The clash among the rival boarders disrupted functioning on the university premises. Classes could not be held and the employees living in the staff quarters were scared. They requested the administration to deploy police on the campus and bring the skirmish under control."

The police said heavy reinforcements were deployed after the clash, and entry and exit points were sealed to thwart any more attacks from the rival boarders. Officers claimed the hostel boarders clashed with each other at the behest of outsiders.

DSP (city) Anand said: "The troublemakers are being identified and till then, police force will be deployed on the campus for surveillance on the boarders. The groups clashed over collection of donation for Saraswati Puja (January 22, 2018). All the hostels have been vacated and the premises are being thoroughly searched. Police patrol will be intensified to instil confidence among the people living in and around the university campus."