BHUBANESWAR, April 7 (Reuters): Police killed 20 suspected sandalwood smugglers on Tuesday during the biggest operation in years to stamp out smuggling in remote forests.

A police task force in Andhra Pradesh came under attack by a group of smugglers of the rare, valuable wood, the state's police chief, J.V. Ramudu. said.

”They are very violent, earlier also they killed forest officials,” Ramudu said.

The area where the encounter took place is home to red sandalwood, police said. Nine smugglers were killed in one place and 11 in a second clash a kilometre away.

India's most wanted sandalwood smuggler, Veerappan, was shot dead in a gunbattle in 2004, but since then smaller gangs have sprung up. Most of the wood is smuggled out through northeast India into Myanmar.