Two armed cow smugglers opened fire at the Quick Response Team (QRT) of the police and attempted to run them over in northern India's Rajasthan.

The incident took place at Saint village under Kumher police station area, Bharatpur city of the eponymous district on the intervening night of June 22 and 23.

Visuals showed a truck taking a U-turn and heading towards a jeep. The speeding truck hit the jeep and dragged it for a few meters.

Speaking to Newslions, SHO Himanshu Singh Rajawat said that two armed cow smugglers opened fire at the Quick Response Team (QRT) of the police and attempted to run them over. However, the police returned fire, chased them. They also managed to arrest one smuggler, rescue 24 cows and seize the carcasses of a cow and a bull from the vehicle.

A team comprising QRT personnel and other policemen started checking vehicles and barricaded roads after receiving information on cow smugglers going from Bharatpur to Haryana.

"Our team asked the vehicle smuggling cows to stop. Suddenly, the cow smugglers opened fire and shot some four rounds with the police replying with 10 rounds of fire. We chased and managed to arrest one cow smuggler, identified as Mushtaq (45), a native of Nooh Mewat in Haryana," said SHO Himanshu Singh Rajawat.

One of the culprits managed to flee from the scene. FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code 307, Arms Act.

When the container in the vehicle was checked, the cattle were found in a very bad condition. "We managed to rescue 24 bovines. We also recovered the bodies of one cow and a bull." SHO said.