Thirty-five policemen were killed in Nepal early yesterday in two separate bomb attacks by Maoist guerrillas, the Home Ministry and state-run radio said.
"Thirty policeman have been killed and 14 were injured in the attack on a police post at Rukumkot," a Home Ministry spokesman said.
"Eleven injured policemen have been flown to Kathmandu for treatment Monday morning," he said. The bombs caused heavy damage to the police station and cut off phone connections. Rukumkot is 390 km west of the capital, Kathmandu.
In a separate incident, five policemen were killed in a clash with Maoists at a police post in Maina Pokhari, 96 km northeast of Kathmandu. Three rebels were also killed in the firefight.
A high-level police team and the Home Minister, Mr Ram Chandra Paudel, were en route to Rukumkot, a Home Ministry source said.
Maoist insurgents are also thought to be behind a series of timed explosions which went off in and around Kathmandu yesterday but no reports of casualties have been received so far.
The source said the first bomb went off at the entrance to the home of a former inspector general of police at Dhumbarahi, north-east of the capital. A device also exploded in the cowshed of a ruling Nepali Congress lawmaker and at a riot police camp in Bhaktapur city, 16 km east of Kathmandu.
The Maoists had threatened to launch a series of bomb attacks as a prelude to their nationwide general strike on Friday, a police source said.
The Maoists called the strike to demand the resignation of the Prime Minister, Mr Girija Prasad Koirala, over his alleged involvement in a controversial deal by Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation to lease an aircraft from Lauda Air of Austria. The Prime Minister has denied any wrongdoing.
The Maoists also said they were calling the general strike in protest at "state terrorism" unleashed by the Nepali Congress government.
The Maoists launched their violent campaign to overthrow Nepal's constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy in 1996.