Hours after the attacks late Monday in the neighbouring states of Bihar and Jharkhand, the federal government renewed a call to the outlawed guerrillas to give up their arms and enter talks with the government.

Scores of rebels attacked a police station and killed two guards and an inspector in Bihar's Tankuppa county, not far from one of Buddhism's holiest pilgrimage sites, the Press Trust of India quoted police as saying.

Outnumbered police and the Maoists exchanged more than 2,000 rounds of gunfire in the fighting, in which a civilian also died. The rebels dynamited the police station after overrunning it.

Police said they were hunting for the rebels, who enjoy wide support among low-caste Hindus in impoverished Bihar.