UNI

Bhubaneswar, Feb 16: At least 14 police personnel and a civilian were killed in a brazen attack by the armed Naxalites on police stations, police training school and a district armoury at Nayagarh, about 130 km from Bhubaneswar on Friday night.

Nayagarh Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar said the Naxalites have looted the Nayagarh district armoury, the training school and decamped with a large cache of arms and ammunition in a bus after the attack.

They also set fire the Daspalla police station, before fleeing.  While one civilian was killed in the exchange of fire at the Nayagarh town, 14 policemen were killed during the attack on the police training school and Nayagarh police station.

This was the second major attack on a town in Orissa by the Naxalites during the last four years. Earlier in 2004, hundreds of armed Naxalites attacked five police stations in Koraput and looted the district armoury.

Reports said a large number of Naxalites armed with sophisticated weapons arrived in the town late in the night and asked the residents of Nayagarh to remain in door and switched off lights before they went on their daring operation of attacking the police station.

A small team present at the police station was completely unaware of the sudden attack by the armed Naxalites. There were heavy exchange of firing at the training school in which several police personnel were reportedly killed.

Additional police reinforcements were rushed to Nayagarh district from the neighbouring area and all exit points to the district were sealed by the police soon after the incident.

A red alert has been sounded in the neighbouring district police stations, sources said. Unconfirmed reports said three Naxalites were also killed.