Maoist insurgents detonated an explosive device Wednesday in a forested area in central India, killing 10 police officers and the driver of their vehicle, a state government minister said.

T.S. Singh Deo, health minister of Chhattisgarh state, said the insurgents targeted policemen who were setting up camps in Bastar district as part of a campaign to clear the area of rebels.

The bomb hit one of the vehicles in a police convoy, the Press Trust of India news agency cited police as saying.

The vehicles in the convoy were traveling about 500 feet apart, and the insurgents used a homemade bomb packed with about 90 pounds of explosives, PTI said.

In 2021, insurgents killed 20 police and paramilitary troops in gunbattles in the forests of Chhattisgarh state.

Maoist rebels, who claim inspiration from Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting India’s government for more than four decades, demanding land and jobs for tenant farmers and poor people.

Rebels are active in several parts of India. They often attack government troops and officials and have been called India’s greatest internal security threat.

A bear has attacked and bitten a man walking his dog in a village south of Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, authorities said Wednesday.

The man suffered a minor leg injury in the attack around 7.30 on Wednesday morning in Želimlje, some 12 miles from Ljubljana, municipal authorities said.

The bear went back into the forest, where logging is currently taking place. Slovenia is an Alpine country covered in forests.

SLOVENIA TO CULL GROWING BEAR, WOLF POPULATION AFTER ATTACKS

Slovenia has been engulfed in a debate over the need for an organized culling of bears, amid demands that their population be lowered from the current 1,100 to around 800.

Wednesday's incident comes after two bears collided with cars on roads in central Slovenia last week in two separate accidents. One of the animals died and the other ran away injured.