Bhubaneswar, May 11: At least two people were killed in a group clash today at Gambhari village, about 45km away from Puri district headquarters town, which falls in the Brahmagiri Assembly constituency.

The provocation for the clash is suspected to be harvesting of paddy over which there was a dispute. The villagers have fled fearing police action.

Both the groups, one supported by the BJD and the other by Congress, indulged in pelting stones and crude bombs at each other.

The villagers even used country-made pistol to terrorise each other.

Two people — Sudhakar Dalai and Basudev Jena — were killed in the incident. While a stray bullet hit Sudhkar Dalai, Basudev was attacked by his opponents.

The local people rushed them to a nearby hospital. However, they were declared brought dead.

A police team led by an additional superintendent rushed to the spot. Four platoons of the police are now camping in the area. The Brahmagiri Assembly constituency is represented by BJD youth wing president Sanjay Dasburma.

In 2009 Assembly election, Dasburma defeated senior congress leader Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra. Since then, the constituency has been witnessing violence as group clashes kept on occurring frequently between the Congress and the BJD supporters.

The last major group clash broke out there on February 24 when 65 houses had been gutted. Since then, tension prevailed in the area. However, it is alleged that no attempts were made by the district authorities to bring peace to the village.

On January 30, the Assembly constituency had witnessed violence when some hooligans attacked panchayati raj minister Maheswar Mohanty.

The police arrested a school headmaster in this connection. Later, the police was forced to release the headmaster under political pressure.

Sources expressed concern over growing political violence in Puri district, especially at Brahmagiri.