The victims were farmers who had come to deposit their potatoes at a cold storage.

The incident occurred at Gangarampur in South Dinajpur district this morning.

The group of potato-growers had come to a private cold storage to store their crop. But the cold storage owner turned them back, saying there was no space.

When the news of the refusal spread, other potato farmers from the area congregated at the cold storage within an hour and went on a rampage.

The owner called in the police, who came and used batons and tear-gas shells on the mob.

But failing to control the angry farmers, they opened fire.

“The primary report states that 10 to 12 people have been injured. They have been taken to a nearby hospital. The farmers got angry as there is no other cold storage in the area and the owner of this one refused to stock the potatoes,” said TT Lepcha, DIG (Darjeeling Range).

“Some of the farmers have been injured in the lathicharge while one policeman was injured in brick-batting,” said IG (Headquarters), J Chatterjee.

The incident comes barely 22 days after the police firing in Dinhata, which left five Forward Bloc supporters and one policeman dead.

The incident drew a sharp reaction in Kolkata from Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who said the police, under the Left Front rule, have become trigger-happy.