Rourkela, July 6: Panic gripped the city today when an eleven-member herd of elephants entered the Bisra stadium here.

The authorities have confined the herd to the stadium by closing its two gates. The stadium is built over five acres and has a 12-feet concrete wall surrounding it.

Eyewitnesses said the herd, comprising six females, two males and three calves, which had been roaming for the past two days near Bisra Rehabilitation and Settlement Colony about 20km from the city, headed towards Rourkela in the early hours today.

A green belt developed by Rourkela Steel Plant around the stadium might have enticed the group. Once the herd entered the complex, forest and police officials closed the gates. Efforts will be made at night to drive the elephants away towards the Saranda forests, on the Odisha-Jharkhand border, 35km away from the stadium. The animals are being given food and water.

The herd had entered the RS Colony near Bisra on Thursday and had ransacked three houses. However, they did attack any humans.

The residents of the RS Colony said the herd moved away from their area around midnight. The animals damaged a few kiosks and a four-feet high decorative wall near the stadium before entering the complex. A forest official said: “The green belt probably gave the sense of a jungle and they entered the stadium around 2am.”

“It was around one-thirty when I heard a loud noise. It took me a while to realise it belonged to an elephant. Soon, five or six animals came out of the stadium and I saw them standing barely 50 meters away from me. They stayed in the green belt for sometime and then went inside,” said Shyam, a vendor.

The plant site police alerted forest officials. “When I reached the spot, a small panicky crowd was watching the elephants’ movements,” said Arun Swain, inspector in charge of the police station.

Gradually, the crowd swelled and the forest and police officials closed the gates of the stadium. “Fortunately, the group did not make any attempt to move out last night. Generally, the herd moves at night,” said divisional forest officer of Panposh range S. Kumar.

“Let us wait till sunset. Till that period we are keeping our fingers crossed because everything depends on their mood,” said a forest official.