A couple of officers of Shyampukur police station were attacked early on Monday by at least 30 slum dwellers when they tried to rescue a minor girl.

Monday's attack was the third on cops of the police station in the past three months.

An officer of Shyampukur police station said a man had lodged a complaint with Dhantala police station in Nadia a few days ago, accusing a youth from the Shyampukur area of kidnapping his 16-year-old daughter.

Investigation revealed that the youth lived in the Kana Raja slum area, barely 100m from Shyampukur police station, he said.

A team of officers from Dhantala and Shyampukur police stations raided the slum early on Monday. "We rescued the girl and arrested the youth," the officer said.

"As we were about to leave, a group of 30 youths surrounded us and started raining blows. After some time, they fled the area with the girl and the youth."

The officer said this was the third attack in three months. "The same group had vandalised the police station recently. Fearing a fresh attack, we kept the main gate locked."

Another officer claimed senior officers had phoned a local Trinamul leader, seeking his intervention, as the area was known as a Trinamul stronghold.

He, however, did not say anything when Metro asked him why cops had not sought reinforcement from Lalbazar instead of calling up a Trinamul leader.

Around 11am, the girl walked into the police station saying the slum dwellers had asked her to go to the police station since they had realised it was illegal to hold a minor girl captive, an officer said.

A group of people from the slum where the cops had found the girl later assembled outside the police station, demanding that the girl step out and say she had not been kidnapped. The youth is absconding.

Last year, on October 28, a group of cops from Shyampukur police station had been attacked when they tried to disperse two warring groups of youths.

On December 12, the cops had picked up a man on the charge of disorderly conduct under the influence of alcohol. Within minutes of bringing the man to the police station, a group of 200 men and women stormed in and ransacked rooms and damaged furniture, an officer said.

But there have been no arrests in both cases.