Karaikal, Oct 23 (IANS): Tension continued to simmer in Puducherry on Saturday following the brutal murder of a PMK leader as he was returning home.

A group of unidentified assailants hacked to death PMK's Karaikal district Secretary K. Devamani when the PMK leader was returning home to Thirunallar, along with a party colleague on a motorbike around 10.30 p.m. on Friday.

The police suspect it to be an act of political vendetta.

Surveillance camera footage from the area shows that the assailants had followed Devamani before attacking him. They then escaped on motorcycles, leaving him lying in a pool of blood.

His supporters and family rushed him to the government general hospital in Karaikal where doctors declared him dead.

With Devamani's kin and PMK members on protest, demanding the arrest of his assailants, heavy police presence has been deployed in the area and a search is on for the suspects.

Devamani had been appointed as PMK's Karaikal district Secretary in 2012 and had contested the Thirunallar Assembly constituency in the 2016 polls.