Barrackpore: Modern English Academy, the school whose entrance was bulldozed by the army on Tuesday, had a police team standing guard outside its rubble-lined driveway when a batch of ICSE examinees walked in the next morning.

The police presence, arranged at the school's request, added to the uneasy calm that had descended on the campus adjoining an army officers' mess after the protest by guardians against the demolition.

Besides the entrance, the bulldozer pulled down a portion of the boundary wall and a tin shed that was being used as a waiting room.

The school authorities had arranged to clear the rubble from the gate before 113 students arrived to write their Hindi paper from 11am. "We sought police deployment because we feared for the safety of our students. Some parents had come to us in the morning to express their concern (over what happened on Tuesday). The students were also scared. We tried to allay their fears," said Kajal Lahiri, the principal of Modern English Academy.

The police have seized the bulldozer that was used to demolish the entrance to the school, one among 27 such private institutes in the cantonment area.

Rajesh Kumar, the commissioner of police in Barrackpore, said his department had assured the school authorities that students would not face any problem during the remainder of their board examinations.

Asked what action had been taken on the basis of the FIR against some army personel, he said: "Law will take its own course."

An officer of the army's Eastern Command said the Cantonment Board, Barrackpore, had only got an "illegal guard chowki" on the premises demolished.

The school authorities had denied the board's chief executive officer entry into the campus when he went there to inspect the "illegal construction", the officer said.

Dean Amrita Isaac Roy said the Barrackpore Park Road Christian Education Society that runs the school has "owned the land since 1998".