Raipur, July 10 (PTI): At least 20 Maoists were killed and nine security personnel were injured in a fierce gunbattle in a jungle in naxal-infested Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, a senior police official said today.

Twenty-seven out of the 115-member team are still missing in the Elampatti- Regadgatta jungle, about 550 km from here, where the gunbattle erupted last evening after CRPF and Special Police Force launched an operation to flush out the ultras from there.

"The personnel who have returned from the jungle have told us that at least 20 naxals were killed in the operation which lasted for about five hours," the official linked with the anti-naxal operations said.

DIG Vishwaranjan and a top official of CRPF said there were no casualty from the security personnel team.

Nine personnel were injured in the encounter, the official with the anti-naxal operation wing said, adding the condition of three were stated to be serious.

Both the security personnel and naxalites have used mortars and light machine guns during the gunbattle, he said.

Chattisgarh's Special Task Force and Andhra Police's 'Greyhound' assisted by Union Home Ministry's air wing have launched a search operation in the jungle bordering Andhra, a CRPF spokesman told PTI in New Delhi.