A group of villagers pelted stones at the police when they were stopped from entering the fields at Joymolla village where the fencing work was on, police said.

Police then resorted to lathicharge and chased them away. Five persons were injured in the lathicharge. They were arrested, police said.

The Trinamool Congress immediately called for a road and rail roko.

As the tension mounted with villagers coming out of their homes at Beraberi, Ghaserberi to resist fencing work, police burst teargas shells and fired rubber bullets, they said.

Some villagers alleged that the police entered their homes, beat them up and set on fire their stocks of paddy.

A massive police force was deployed at the spot under DIG (Midnapore) N R Babu.

Mukul Roy, general sectretary of the Trinamool Congress, which was spearheading the movement against acquisition of farmland for the Tata project, alleged in Kolkata that the police resorted to firing.

Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee complained that the police stopped him when he was going to Singur.

He claimed that TC legislator from Singur Rabindranath Bhattacharya was injured and arrested.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, who was campaigning at Islampur in North Bengal, rushed to Singur cutting short her programme.

She also directed party MLAs to go to Singur, a Siliguri report said.

Criticising Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for the police action against villagers, Chatterjee asked, "If farmers had given their land voluntarily, why are they resisting it now?"

The police deployed in the area used microphones to warn villagers not to approach the area where fencing work was on.

Congress District President Preetam Ghosh alleged that the police destroyed the party camp near the site on Friday night.