Bhubaneswar, Sep 11 (IANS): One person was killed in police firing and 19 others, including 15 policemen, were injured in clashes in a village in Odisha's Nayagarh district Thursday, an official said.

The incident took place at Chandpur after more than 3,000 villagers who were on a sit-down strike near the local police station attacked the policemen over their failure to arrest the culprits responsible for the murder of four members of a family in the area Sep 6.

Police resorted to firing as last option after the protestors pelted stones, ransacked police station and attacked the policemen, superintendent of police Niti Shekhar told IANS.

Police initially attempted to disperse the mob through baton charge and tear gas shelling to no avail. Fifteen policemen and four villagers sustained injuries in the clashes. Tension continued to prevail in the area, Shekhar said.

People were demanding arrest of the culprits responsible for the murder of four members of a family, including two minor children, who were found murdered in their home in the area Sep 6.

Sarat Patra, who works in a private firm here, found his father, his wife and two children lying in pools of blood at his home in Chandpur when he reached there on that night.

He immediately informed police, who sent the bodies for autopsy.

The rear door of the house was found broken.

Although the reason behind the gruesome murders was not yet clear, police said the two children - five and nine years old - were asphyxiated with a pillow, while the two adults were killed with sharp-edged weapons.

No one has been arrested so far in the crime.

The district headquarters of Nayagarh is about 90 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar.