More than 300 people may have been killed after Maoist rebels launched two of the deadliest attacks of their six-year campaign to topple Nepal's monarchy, police said on this afternoon.
About 100 bodies, including those of policemen forced to strip before being executed and in some cases beheaded, have been recovered so far around Dang, the site of Thursday's gunbattles in the Himalayan Hindu kingdom's western region.
"The entire area is flooded with vultures, flying over looking for bodies," police officer Lokendra Malla said, adding about 250 rebels were believed dead, including 45 bodies already found.
Rebels could not be contacted for comment and the official death toll remained at 112. But officials in Dang expected it to rise dramatically.
"Soldiers are digging ditches for more rebel bodies," Dang district officer Mathur Prasad Yadav said. "Bodies are scattered around the jungle, the fields and the riverbanks."