At least 11 para-military personnel were killed and five others wounded when armed Maoists attacked them in a dense forest in India’s Chhattisgarh state today, police said.



The Maoists first set off improvised explosive devices before opening indiscriminate fire on a battalion of 112 Central Reserve Police Force which was on patrol duty and passing through the forest near a village in Sukma district this morning, our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting a senior police official.



The Maoists also looted 10 weapons and two radio sets from the security men, officials said.



A senior official said that the CRPF battalion was on an operation to ensure security to a patch of an under-construction road, around 450 kilometres away from Chhatisgarh state’s capital city of Raipur.



Officials said the security personnel were first trapped in multiple Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts followed by heavy gunfire.



Additional security forces, including a team of elite anti-Maoist force, have been rushed to the spot and the bodies of the deceased are being retrieved, he added.