Suspected Maoist rebels killed at least 24 people and left 37 injured when they ambushed a convoy carrying regional leaders from India's ruling Congress party in dense forest.
Reports suggest more than 200 rebels, also known as Naxals, were involved in one of the deadliest such attacks in recent years.
The attackers felled trees to block the 20-car convoy in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh and then detonated a landmine and fired on the vehicles, Indian media reported.
Four state party leaders and eight police officers were among the 24 people who were killed. Other victims were party supporters. Police officer R K Vij said 11 of the 37 injured were in serious condition.
Among those killed was Mahendra Karma, a senior Congress leader from Chhattisgarh who founded an anti-Maoist group and was believed to be the main target of the attack.
State Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, were also killed in the attack in a remote tribal belt about 210 miles (340km) south of the state capital Raipur.
"When our cars reached a turning point, the Naxals started firing," NDTV quoted an injured Congress party worker as saying from hospital.
"Two cars were blown up and the firing continued for almost one-and-a-half hours," said the worker.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attack and said his government would take firm action.
Mr Singh, who flew to Chhattisgarh with Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, has called the Maoists the greatest domestic threat to India.
Ms Gandhi, denounced what she called a "dastardly attack" on the country's democratic values, adding: "We are devastated."
The rebels have fought for decades in a wide swathe of central and eastern India, including many resource-rich regions where tensions run high between poor farmers and industrial developers.
They are estimated to number between 6,000 and 8,000 hardcore fighters in nearly a third of India's 630 districts.
While they have made few inroads into cities, they have spread into rural pockets in 20 of 28 states.
Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers. Thousands have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.
In the worst previous Maoist attack, an ambush by hundreds of rebels killed 75 policemen in Chhattisgarh in 2010.
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