Bhubaneswar, Aug 9 (IANS): At least four Maoist camps were busted and a huge cache of live ammunition and other articles were seized following an exchange of fire between the ultras and the security personnel in the Gandhamardhan reserve forest in Odisha's Bargarh district, the police said on Sunday.

About 10 to 15 CPI (Maoists) activists managed to escape after the exchange of fire that took place at around 7.30 a.m. on Saturday, said a statement issued by the Odisha Police.

Upon reliable intelligence input regarding the camping of CPI (Maoists) activists planning violent anti-state activities in the Gandhamardhan reserve forest area, Special Operation Group (SOG) teams of Bargarh-Bolangir along with CRPF platoons started joint an anti-Naxal operation in the area.

An exchange of fire took place for around 30 minutes. The naxal group could manage to escape taking advantage of the dense forest and heavy rainfall, the police said.

During the search operation, the SOG team found four naxal camps in a row and recovered live ammunition, empty cartridges and camp articles from the spot.