Officials in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong say three people were shot dead and more than 50 injured when police tried to evict them from land in the military cantonment. Police have arrested nine people, among them some retired army officers who they say were illegally occupying the land. According to officials, most of the injured are policemen, and one of them is said to be in a critical condition. Our Dhaka correspondent, Francis Harrison, reports.

Officials sent two magistrates and a contingent of policemen to the military cantonment of Chittagong to reclaim the disputed land. The authorities say they acquired the privately-owned land for the army by paying compensation to all the owners and tenants living there, as is the norm.

But some of the owners of the 15-hectare plot of low-cost housing are saying they didn't get enough compensation money. Local people were given a week's notice of the police action and appeared to be ready to resist.

At first, an argument broke out between the 220 families living on the land and the police, then thousands of people came to watch and the situation grew tense. The authorities say the police were suddenly attacked with gun-shots and bricks.

A government official who witnessed the incident said three policemen were captured by the crowd and slashed with knives - at which point the police started to panic. They were ordered to open fire to control the situation, in what's a sensitive military area.

Two hundred rounds of ammunition were used. The army has now taken over the land and put a camp on it to mark its ownership.