Police at the nearest outpost did not act to stop violence and left in a hurry, they said.

Neither the local police nor the East Midnapore police Superintendent S S Panda were available for comment on the fresh violence.

Callers to the mobile of Panda, who recently took over as the SP in place of G Srinivas, were greeted with the message: "the subscriber is switched off".

West Bengal IGP (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said in Kolkata that there were reports that bombs were thrown on a procession, but no detail was available at the police headquarters here.

Eyewitnesses said that all the injured were rushed to a local hospital and primary health clinic.

Meanwhile, the Centre decided to send about 1,000 additional CRPF personnel to West Bengal.

The decision to send additional force to Bengal comes after the Union Home Ministry received a request from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Bhattacharjee had sought CRPF deployment for Nandigram on October 29 during a telephonic talk with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil.