Police and Maoists exchanged fire for the second consecutive day in Visakha Agency on Thursday.
Five Maoists were sighted, three of them carrying SLRs, near Teegalametta under Boodaralla Panchayat in Koyyuru mandal around 9 a.m. on Thursday and they could be part of one of the three groups of Maoists that escaped after engaging police for a while from around 800 meters at Cheedipalli on Wednesday morning, Superintendent of Police Koya Praveen said.
The additional forces deployed to track the Maoists in their possible escape routes found one group at Teegalametta, 15 km from Cheedipalli. The Maoists noticed the police movement and opened fire to which the latter retaliated, Dr. Praveen said. Twenty to twenty five rounds were fired by both the sides before the Maoists escaped into the forests. Two kit bags were found from the place where Maoists were sighted.
At Cheedipalli, where the first exchange of fire took place on Wednesday, police suspected that around 30 to 40 persons must have camped.
