KOLKATA The death toll from a Maoist rebel attack on Indian police rose to 25 on Tuesday after more bodies were found in a ravaged security camp in the east of the country, police said.

About 20 rebels riding motorcycles launched the assault in West Bengal state's restive Midnapore district late on Monday, killing police in a hail of gunfire and exploding landmines which started fires.

On Tuesday, police said eight more bodies were pulled from the charred remains of the centre, 200kms west of state capital Kolkata, including seven policemen and a student who was caught in the crossfire.

“This is the worst-ever attack by Maoists on securitymen in West Bengal,” state police inspector general Surojit Kar Purokayastha said.

Seven other policemen have been hospitalised with bullet and severe burn injuries.

In other recent major attacks, about 30 policemen were killed in two separate ambushes in the nearby state of Chhattisgarh in July last year. In October, 17 policemen were gunned down in western India.

The latest assault came amid a security offensive in several Maoist-infested states to flush out the outlawed insurgents from their strongholds.

The Maoists claimed responsibility for the attack in an interview with local TV channel Chabbis Ghanta (24 Hours), saying the assault was in response to arrests and the anti-Maoist government offensive called Operation Greenhunt.

“We will attack more camps in the area if offensives against the tribals in this district on the suspicision of being Maoists is not stopped immediately,” Maoist leader Kishenji told the TV channel.

The government has offered talks with the Maoists, which it considers the most dangerous home-grown security threat, but only if they renounce violence.

“I, on behalf of Communist Party of India ( Maoist) politburo, would like to make it clear that violence would stop as soon as the government withdraws its troops,” Kishenji added.

The Maoist insurgency began as a peasant uprising in 1967 and has now spread to 20 of India's 29 states. They claim to be fighting for the rights of impoverished tribal people and other victims of state violence.

Attacks on security personnel and state property are concentrated in a so-called “Red corridor” that stretches across north and eastern India.—AFP