In a major Naxalite strike, nine security personnel were killed and eight of them seriously injured on Saturday night when Maoists rebels triggered a landmine blast—targeting a truck carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and district force personnel—near Kokavada village near Tongapal in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.

According to Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range), five security personnel were killed on the spot. Four of the 12 injured injured in the blast were shifted to a hospital at Jagdalpur, divisional headquarters of Bastar, where four of them succumbed to injuries,

Police sources said they were not ruling out the possibility of more casualty as the 10-wheeled truck in which the security personnel were travelling overturned after hitting the landmine and the rebels opened indiscriminate fire after the blast.