Policemen pay last respects to their colleagues killed in Maoist attack along the Chhattisgarh-Orissa border on Monday. (AFP)

Nuapada/Bhubaneswar, May 24: Nine police personnel, including an additional superintendent police (ASP) of Chhattisgarh, were killed in a Maoist ambush in Sunabeda forest of Nuapada district last evening.

The deceased have been identified as ASP of Gariaband district in Chhattisgarh, Rajesh Pawar, and eight other police personnel, including the driver of a police van.

Chhattisgarh police, who reached the spot early this morning, have recovered the nine bodies.

The bodies were airlifted this afternoon by special helicopter to Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Sources said a police team, including the ASP, was on its way to a village after being informed about Maoist movement there. They had taken a tractor and changed the route after their vehicle broke down but the Maoists had already got information and launched a surprise attack.

About 50 to 60 Maoists surrounded the police team and fired indiscriminately at the cops killing nine of them.

Nuapada superintendent of police (SP) Rajesh Uttamrao Pandit confirmed that there was no landmine explosion on the spot as it had been planned earlier.

“All the deceased have sustained bullet injuries. The van broke down and the team took help of a tractor to move out of the forest when they encountered the armed Maoists. The Maoists opened fire at the police team killing nine of them,” Pandit said.

The incident took place barely about 1km from Sunabeda village near the Sunadei temple some 10km from the Chhattisgarh border.

A team of Chhattisgarh police, led by Gariabandh SP Kamal Lochan Kashyap, reached the spot early this morning to take stock of the situation.

Kashyap said police recovered bodies of the nine policemen who died in the ambush. “We have recovered bodies of nine policemen. We are yet to find the other policeman who accompanied the team. Bodies of the deceased were airlifted by two special choppers to Raipur,” Kashyap said.

Following the attack by the Maoists, the Orissa government has sealed the border adjoining Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand.

“We have taken all preventive action. Combing operation has been intensified. Our police force are moving carefully,” said a senior police officer.

India’s biggest anti-Maoist Operation “Green Hunt’’ was launched in September, 2009 at the Orissa-Chhattisgarh border.

Around 50 Maoists have been reportedly killed and more than 10 security personnel were killed in the operation.

The Red rebels had also delivered a blow to the police force on June 18, 2009, when they killed 10 personnel of the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Orissa police in a landmine explosion in Narayanpatna block of Korapur district.

On July 17, 2008, 20 police personnel were killed and a few others critically injured when the landmines planted by the Maoists had exploded on the Kalimela-Motu road in Malkangiri district.