Police in the early hours of Monday foiled a Naxalite attempt to storm a police station in Visakhapatnam [Images] in Andhra Pradesh, sources said.

Police officials said a group of 50 Maoists descended on the Koyyur police station and tried to explode two claymore mines.

However, cops at the station opened fire, forcing the attackers to flee.

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In another incident, two Naxal functionaries were killed in an encounter at Adilabad.

According to police, two Maoist district committee secretaries-- Agila Istari alias Salim and Bhaskar alias Suryam alias Narsanna-- were killed in the encounter.

Following a tip off that members of four Naxalite squads were meeting, a search party from Kagaznagar combed the Manigarh-Jogapur forest area on the Andhra-Maharashtra border on Saturday and Sunday.

Soon after the police surrounded the hillocks in the area, Maoists opened fire. While Istari and Bhaskar were killed in the ensuing gun-battle, seven others managed to escape.

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The police later said North Telangana Special Zonal Committee member Pulluri Prasada Rao alias Chandranna was among those who escaped.

Istari, involved in several criminal cases including the killing of Telugu Desam legislator Palvai Purushottam Rao and two policemen in 1999, carried a reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head.

The search party recovered a AK-47, a .303 rifle, a pistol, two magazines, 12 kitbags, a medical aid kitbag and a large number of claymore mines from the site.