Two persons were killed when the branches of a shirish tree fell on a meat shop on Jessore road at Chandpara in North 24-Parganas on Sunday morning.

Police and local sources said shopowner Ratan Mondal and customer Snehangshu Biswas died on the spot after suffering head injuries.

Local residents blocked the busy Jessore road near the block development office for about two hours, demanding the immediate felling of old trees that had been posing a “serious threat” along the road.

Pranab Adhikari, a local resident, said: “In the past, similar accidents occurred and branches of trees fell on people and claimed lives. Police and local administration have forever blamed timber smugglers for felling. But they have never bothered to trim overgrown trees.”

The local sources said the Centre had conceived a plan a few years ago to widen NH35, known as Jessore Road, that links Petrapole land port. Under the project that was taken up from Petrapole port to VIP Road crossing near the Dumdum airport, it was decided that a few hundred shirish trees would be felled.

But the project could not be executed as activists and a section of local residents launched a movement against the felling of the trees.