Muzaffarpur: A violent clash broke out between two groups of students at Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University here on Friday in the run-up to the students' union elections on March 18.

Police said students belonging to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) during an election campaign barged into Duke hostel located adjacent to Langat Singh College in course of a poll campaign.

Inmates of Duke hostel assaulted ABVP men for daring to enter the hostel for campaigning. In the ensuing melee, the ABVP men suffered injuries on the body and ran for safety. To protest the assault, more ABVP men gathered in huge numbers outside Langat Singh College and decried the high-handedness of the hostel and inmates demanded police action against them.

They blocked the Maripur-Kalambagh road for three more hours by squatting on the road outside the college. To vent their ire, the protesters barged into the residence of the vice-chancellor Amrendra Narayan Yadav and went berserk there as well in his presence and other staff. The VC intervened to calm the ABVP men rampaging inside his residence but had to face the wrath of the students' mob.

The VC faced humiliation at the hands of students, who ransacked furniture and smashed flower pots. On getting information, the deputy superintendent of police (SP) (city) Ashish Anand and the sub-divisional officer (east), Sunil Kumar, rushed to the site with heavy reinforcements and dragged out them using force. Angry students raised slogans against the police officers who used mild force to kick them out. The agitating students entered into the administrative building of the university and forced its closure.

DSP (city) Ashish Anand said the police patrolling had been intensified following tension after the clash. The university has lodged an FIR against unidentified students for indulging in vandalism at the VC's residence. "The situation on the university campus is being monitored and the police team will soon arrest the troublemakers," said the DSP.