Security forces on Saturday stormed Lalgarh and without much resistance reclaimed the police station under control of Maoists, who had cut off the area in West Midnapore district for eight months.

"It is a partial victory. The hundred per cent operation is yet to be completed. It may take days, even weeks to do this," DIG (Midnapore Range) Praveen Kumar told an impromptu press conference outside the Lalgarh police station.

An anti-landmine vehicle cleared the path for the security personnel who reached the police station to take charge of the building.

Central forces, comprising men from the BSF and CRPF, fanned out in the forests for combing operations against the Maoists. The security personnel donning camouflage and bullet-proof vests sanitised the five-km stretch of Jhitka jungle, a Maoist area near Lalgarh.

AK-47 and Insas rifle-toting securitymen came under intermittent fire from Maoists on the Pingboni-Sarenga road on Saturday, Superintendent of Police Burdwan Humayan Kabir said adding two landmines planted on the road were defused.

Lalgarh police station was out of bounds since November 2008 when tribals under the banner of People's Committee Against Police Atrocities launched a boycott of police to protest raids on their homes following a landmine blast targeting Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's convoy.

As the operation entered a crucial phase, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidamabaram in New Delhi and apprised them of the situation in Lalgarh.

In Lalgarh, DIG (Western Range) Praveen Kumar said all the central forces, including specialised anti-Naxal unit CoBRA (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action) and the CRPF, have been a "great help".

"We ask people not to be misguided by the Maoists. We know all their tactics now and have more surprises for them this time," Bhattacharjee told reporters.