Bhubaneswar, April 30: At least ten people were injured and over fifteen vehicles damaged in a clash between a group of drunken youths and some local traders at Rasulgarh Square on NH-5 this evening.

The half-an-hour long incident, which happened only 50-metre away from Mancheswar police station, created panic among local residents and commuters. The Mancheswar police rushed the injured to a nearby hospital and detained five persons.

Sources said that the clash started around 5pm as five students started creating nuisance outside a liquor shop after allegedly having a booze session at a hotel-cum-bar in the locality. While standing in front of a betel shop which is adjacent to the liquor shop, the youths started using abusive languages among themselves. One of them also kicked a display board of a garage beside the betel shop and abused Bitu, a man who works in the garage.

“When I asked them not to create such nuisance at a public place, they attacked me with bottles of cold drink and injured me,” said Bitu.

He said that the youths identified themselves as engineering students and claimed that none could do any harm to them.

The youths then allegedly started pelting cold drink bottles at the betel shop and liquor shop. They even attacked some commuters and pedestrians, breaking around 10 motorcycles and some other vehicles, including a passenger bus.

“They threw bottles at our shop. When I asked them to leave the place, they attacked me with the glass bottles,” said Bijay Sahu, the manager of the liquor shop, who sustained severe injuries.

Local traders and commuters soon started retaliating and attacked these youths. Though the pitched battle continued for around half an hour near the police station, no policemen were seen on the spot.

The police came to know about the matter only after the youths entered into the police station to save themselves from the attack of the angry local traders and commuters.

Later police detained some persons from both the groups.

“We have detained some and will arrest others. Those who were fighting in the public creating trouble for others will be booked and forwarded to court,” said a police officer.

Nurse molested

Mahila police today arrested Maheswar Pandey, 35, of Khurda for assaulting a nursing student on a running bus. The youth was sent to Jharapada special jail after his bail plea was rejected by a local court here this evening.

Sources said that the complainant was a student of a private nursing college at Gangapada.

The woman was coming to the city from the Khurda side on a bus and sat on a seat near the accused. The youth tried to assault the woman, following which she raised an alarm. Other passengers immediately detained the youth. A complaint was lodged at the Mahila police station after the bus stopped at Master Canteen.

The incident came a day after a special squad of the city police arrested two brothers from Nayagarh last night for raping a woman at Mancheswar on Sunday. The accused — Susant Nayak, 30, and Sagar Nayak, 28 — were sent to jail today after a local court rejected their bail pleas.