'100 Maoists killed in gun battle in Nepal'

The sources, quoting witnesses to Sunday's clash near the village of Sini in Achham district, said the bodies of 35 insurgents had been carried away, while altogether as many as 100 rebels could have been killed in the heavy fighting.

There was no way of independently verifying the death toll from the clash which took place in a remote part of the Himalayan kingdom.

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"We are waiting for a detailed report on the incident," an army source added.

On Sunday, army officials said five rebels and two troops had been killed in the violence, which they said began after a group of Maoists attacked an army patrol.

The state-run English daily, The Rising Nepal, also said up to 100 guerrillas could have died, quoting the Achham District Administration Office.

"Eyewitnesses said the Maoists had carried away the bodies of their dead in bamboo baskets or simply chopped off their heads to conceal their identities," the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, a schoolboy was killed and seven people injured Monday as a series of bomb blasts blamed on Maoist rebels rocked the Nepalese capital, police said.

The boy, who was on his way to school, was killed when a bomb went off in front of the Nepal Rastra Bank (Central Bank) in central Kathmandu, about 200 metres (660 feet) from the prime minister's official residence, police said.