Around 40 residential houses were gutted as members of two rival groups resorted to hurling bombs at each other and set afire the thatched houses in Ambagoan village under the Jarada police station in Ganjam district on Sunday.
No one was injured in the arson at the village located in the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border. Fire tenders went to the spot and controlled the blaze. The quantum of loss due to the fire was yet to be ascertained, the police said.
The incident occurred when one group set ablaze the houses belonging to their rival groups by pouring kerosene, some others were gutted due to explosion of crude bombs hurled to the houses. “The situation is under control now. Forces were deployed in the area,” said Chikiti SDPO BK Nayak.
Almost all male persons of the village fled fearing arrest and only women and children remained, he said. “Though the enmity between the two groups in the village old, the sudden provocation for the fresh incident is under investigation,” Nayak said.