Three persons – two students and a Police Inspector – fainted during the course of agitation seeking total prohibition and closure of TASMAC liquor outlets in the city, on Tuesday.

As a few students, including girls, were agitating in front of a TASMAC outlet in Pappanaickenpalayam, a girl fainted after giving a speech on the evils of liquor and need for closure of the outlet, located in the middle of a thickly populated residential area.

Fellow students managed to revive her as the Police attempted to take the agitators into a waiting van, Police said.

In the melee, the fist of a girl student hit the chest of a Police Inspector, who fell down and swooned, since he had fitted a pace maker. Fellow police personnel admitted him in a nearby private hospital, they said.

A law college student, Madan also fainted during the course of the agitation near a wine shop at Lawley Road in R S Puram and his friends took him to CMCH by an ambulance. As many as 40 law students were arrested for attempting to picket the liquor shop, police said.

Police resorted to a mild lathi charge to disperse some 50 MDMK workers, who downed the shutters of a TASMAC shop in Kavundampalayam, as part of the agitation.

As an AIADMK councillor objected to the MDMK workers downing the shutters of a Government owned outlet, an argument broke out between MDMK and AIADMK workers. Police had to resort to mild caning to diffuse the tension and disperse the workers, Police said.