Nandigram on Thursday appeared a haunted place, a day after the police firing left 14 people dead, as houses in village after village were desolate with most residents having fled.

A PTI correspondent, who ventured into Bhangabera, Garchakraberia and other villages deep inside Nandigram saw only contingents of heavily armed police but no inhabitants.

At the Nandigram Sadar Hospital, where the injured in the police firing were undergoing treatment, a villager of Bhangabera Prodyut Giri said when the police opened fire, his brother Rakhal fell after being hit by a bullet.

"I fled but my brother is missing," he said, adding that he had come to the hospital to search for his brother, but could not find him.

A woman of Gokulnagar village, Kabita Dasadhikary said that before the police entered Hindu residents were conducting a puja while Muslims were reciting from the Koran against the acquisition of their land.

She claimed that her husband, son-in-law, his wife and three children went missing after the police firing. "I later learnt that my husband has been admitted to a hospital at Tamlik with serious injuries. The others are still missing."

Mehernaga Bibi of Jalpai village said women and children were going in a procession when the police opened fire. "A woman next to me was hit by a bullet and fell," she recollected.

Another woman of Garchakraberia village claimed she hid in a jungle after she was injured in police firing. She saw a doctor who gave her first aid.