Burnpur, Jan. 15: Clashes between criminals dealing in scrap iron of the Indian Iron and Steel Company (Iisco), which have been continuing over the last four months, have created panic among residents of this steel town in Burdwan.

The township, which lies in Hirapur area of the district and comes under the Asansol Municipal Corporation, has witnessed nine murders since September ? six of them in December.

Residents of Burnpur, 250 km from Calcutta, including teachers, doctors and lawyers, are now afraid to stay out till late. The residents, angered by police inaction, put up road blocks on the arterial Burnpur Road on December 27. They also gheraoed the Hirapur police station twice to protest against the rise in criminal activities in the area.

The residents said gangs vie with each other for control over the scrap iron dumped in the Iisco slag bank, smuggle out the metal and sell it to sponge iron factories and rolling mills in the Asansol-Durgapur industrial zone.

The spurt in crime has panicked residents. Deepa Basu, the headmistress of Burnpur Girls? High School said she had asked guardians not to send their children, specially junior-class students, alone to school as the area had become crime prone.

?We became very nervous when three persons were murdered on December 26. Students and their guardians also panicked. We ended classes early and called the guardians to take their children home,? she said.

Kiran Sharma is scared to go out alone to fetch her son from school in the afternoon. ?I have heard about the murders in the township and I am scared,? she said.

Orthopaedic surgeon Biplab Dasgupta is concerned about patients who come in the evening from far away. ?The recent increase in the crime rate in this town makes me worry about my patients. If something happens, how will my they return home??

Brojen Majumdar, the owner of a restaurant and a movie hall, said the flow of customers has been drying up since the gang wars started.

Police officials said they have arrested key criminals. A criminal on top of the wanted list, Shahjahan, was arrested last week near Burdwan?s border with Purulia. Eight associates were also nabbed from Asansol and adjoining areas.

Shajahan?s brother Jahangir is, however, absconding.