NEW DELHI, March 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 Naxals and a policeman were killed Friday in an area located on an inter-state border between Telangana and Chhattisgarh in India, officials said.

The gunfight broke out inside the forest area on the border dividing states of Telangana and Chhattisgarh.

"Early today in a fierce gunfight between Naxals and joint police teams from Chhattisgarh and Telangana at Tadapalagutta and Pujari Kanker forest areas 10 Naxals were killed, while as a policeman also lost his life fighting them," an official told media.

Reports said a top commander of Naxals and six women cadres are among the dead.

The combing operations were still going on and the public are not being allowed to tread the area.

Meanwhile, the bodies of slain Naxals were taken to Bhadrachalam hospital in Bhadradri Kothagudem district of Chhattisgarh for post-mortem.

Naxalite insurgency has its genesis in the violent left-wing rebellion that began in 1967 at village Naxalbari in Indian state of West Bengal.

Currently, Naxals are active in more than a third of India's 600-odd districts across central and eastern India.

India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once termed the Naxalite movement as India's "greatest internal security challenge."

New Delhi has deployed several companies of its paramilitary forces to take on Naxals in their strongholds.

The insurgency reportedly has claimed more than 6,000 lives and rendered thousands of poor inhabitants homeless.