Naxals blow up Venkaiah Naidu's chopper

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday had a miraculous escape when his helicopter was forced to land in Bihar's Naxal-infested Gaya district due to a technical snag.

No one was injured in the incident, party sources told PTI in New Delhi.

Naidu was on his way to Jharkhand for election campaigning.

The helicopter landed in the Pundari area at around 1500 IST after it ran out of fuel. Naidu immediately contacted party general secretary Arun Jaitley, who, too, was in Gaya.

Being a Naxal-affected area, Jaitley sought security arrangements from the district administration for Naidu, party sources said.

But when no security personnel reached the site for over an hour, Naidu left the place on the two-wheeler of a party worker, who had reached the spot on hearing the news.

As soon as Naidu left, suspected Naxals threw a petrol bomb at the helicopter and blew it up.