Cuttack, Feb. 28: Boarders of Daya Women’s Hostel of the Ravenshaw University have expressed concern about their security after a youth tried to break into their hostel last night.

This is the third incident of trespassing into the girl’s hostel of the state’s premier university in a fortnight.

“A youth had entered our hostel around 12 last night and broke three lights. Some of us raised an alarm. But, he managed to flee. We feel unsafe as outsiders frequently enter our premises,” said a boarder, who staged a demonstration outside the hostel this evening.

The Daya Women’s Hostel houses about 200 boarders.

Hostel warden Nachiketa Das tried to pacify the students and said four additional security guards had been pressed into service from today.

Das also said that security would be beefed up in the other three girls’ hostels of the university as well.

The four girls hostels on Ravenshaw campus house about 1,170 students. There are also four separate hostels and one off-campus accommodation facility for the boys of the university. A boarder said no stringent measure had been taken to raise the boundary wall of the girl hostels on the campus.

“We are unable to roam around freely inside our hostels after frequent incidents of trespassing. We will be forced to vacate the hostels and move elsewhere if the authorities do not beef up security,” said Sashmita Das, another boarder.

The boarders had gheraoed the university vice-chancellor B.C. Tripathy yesterday, protesting against the varsity officials’ “indifference” towards their safety.

Daya hostel’s general secretary Prabuddha Mukherjee said a youth, armed with a bottle of acid and ropes, had sneaked into the girls’ boarding facility on February 13 and again on February 22.

“On both the occasions, he was caught by the boarders, who found a girl’s costume in his bag. The matter was also reported to higher authorities. However, the varsity officials have not taken any step to deploy more security guards here,” Mukherjee said.