Two commandos of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and a Naxal were killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Monday morning, an official said.

Two other CRPF personnel were injured in the skirmish, he said.

The exchange of fire broke out around 10.30 a.m at a forest in Irapalli village under Pamed police station limits, located over 400 km from here, when the security forces were out on a counter-insurgency operation, a senior CRPF official said.

“Four personnel of the 204th Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA -an elite unit of CRPF) sustained injuries in the incident. Later, two of them died,” he said.

The two injured CRPF personnel included a deputy commandant, he said.

“A Naxal was also gunned down in the gunfight and a weapon was recovered from the spot,” the official said.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and efforts were underway to evacuate the injured personnel from the forest, he said.