The incident in Khamman district took place late Monday when the group of 50 armed rebels reached the Kukunoor police station, 250 km from here.

There was no loss of life as policemen were not present at the time of the attack -- they were away in connection with arrangements for Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's visit to the district -- and the lone constable fled before minutes before the Maoists struck.

The attackers, who came in tractors and auto rickshaws, fired several rounds from a distance, police said. Since there was no retaliatory fire, they entered the building only to find it empty.

The guerrillas, who were disappointed at not finding weapons, beat up the son of a sub-inspector present in the vicinity. They then blew up the police station building with explosives. While returning they opened fire on a car injuring one person and set afire a truck.

Arms had been taken away three years ago from the police station as a precaution as it was prone to Maoist attack.

This is the third attack on a police station in less than a week. On June 3, Maoists had attacked a police station and an outpost in Mahabubnagar district but the police had repulsed both the attacks.

In another incident early Tuesday, a guerrilla was killed in an alleged gun battle with police at Erragundapalem in Prakasam district. Police said the gun battle took place around 5.30 a.m. when a police party came under attack from Maoists.

Police had launched combing operations in the forest area following the killing of two people by Maoists on the suspicion that they were acting as police informers.