Suspected Maoist guerrillas ambushed a police patrol and shot dead six officers on Friday in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, a hotspot of left-wing extremism, officials said.
Five more were injured in the attack in a forest in Bastar district, 350 kilometres (210 miles) south of the state capital Raipur, said the local head of police anti-Maoist operations, Ramniwas.
Three suspected guerrillas were also killed in the gunbattle, said Ramniwas, who uses one name. A search was on for their bodies, he told AFP.
The 16 policemen travelling on motorcycles came under attack when they were returning from a village where the rebels had destroyed a state facility on Thursday night, he said.
The attack is the second in Chhattisgarh since October 7, when three policemen were slain in a similar ambush. Violence by Maoist rebels in 2010 left a record 1,169 people dead, according to federal government figures.
