KATHMANDU, April 14: More than 300 people may have been killed after Maoists launched two of the deadliest attacks of their six-year campaign to topple Nepal’s monarchy, police said on Sunday.

About 100 bodies, including those of policemen forced to strip before being executed and in some cases beheaded, have been recovered so far around Dang, the site of Thursday’s gunbattles in the Himalayan Hindu kingdom’s western region.

“The entire area is flooded with vultures, flying over looking for bodies,” police officer Lokendra Malla said, adding about 250 rebels were believed dead, including 45 bodies already found.

Rebels could not be contacted for comment and the official death toll remained at 112. But officials in Dang expected it to rise dramatically.

“Soldiers are digging ditches for more rebel bodies,” Dang district officer Mathur Prasad Yadav said. “Bodies are scattered around the jungle, the fields and the riverbanks.”

Buildings were still smouldering on Sunday.

“It was a devastating scene out there,” local journalist Sharat K.C. said.

Residents said the firefight raged for more than three hours and the guerrillas fled with their fallen comrades before dawn.

“On Friday morning, villagers saw two tractors packed with the bodies of rebels killed in the battles who might have been buried in the nearby jungle or riverside,” a radio station in Kantipur said.

On Saturday, four people were taken from their homes and executed by a group of 50 people. No one has claimed responsibility, but officials blamed Maoist guerrillas.—Reuters