An officer of the CRPF's jungle warfare unit CoBRA was killed while eight commandos were injured when Maoists triggered an IED blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, police said on Sunday.

The improvised explosive device exploded in the Chintalnar forest area around 9 pm on Saturday. The injured were evacuated by a Mi-17 V5 helicopter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) around midnight, Inspector General of Police (Bastar) Sundarraj P said.

Assistant Commandant Nitin Bhalerao (33) succumbed to injuries early on Sunday. The injured commandos included the team leader Dinesh Kumar Singh, a second-in-command rank officer, the police officer said.

All eight commandos were treated at a hospital in Raipur while two were moved to a unit hospital at Chintalnar, in the south Bastar area. Sukma district is located about 400 km from Raipur.

The injured belong to the 206th Battalion of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA).

CoBRA and local police personnel were on an area domination exercise when the blast took place.

Bhalerao, a resident of Nashik in Maharashtra, was a decorated commando and had been adjudged the best in various combat competitions, a senior officer said. He joined the CRPF in 2010 and came to CoBRA in 2019.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu condemned the attack and paid tribute to the dead officer. They prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

This is the second major incident at Tadmetla under Chintalnar police station limits after April 6, 2010 when 76 CRPF jawans were killed. As per police, the Naxalites had changed their strategy of attack. Instead of direct attack, they are using IED spikes and placing it where expected movement of jawans are higher.

The police have recovered 70 holes from different areas and 600 spikes mainly iron-spikes using metal detectors. But, now they have started using wooden-spikes which miss the metal detector.