Four CRPF personnel were killed Monday when their vehicle was blown up in a landmine blast in Chhattisgarh's Maoist stronghold of Bastar, while President Pratibha Patil and the top brass of the state were at the Chitrakote waterfall 27 km away.

The deputy commandant of the 41st battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force, Diwakar Mahapatra, was amongst the four killed when his Bolero SUV was blasted near the Mardum area, 340 km from here. The three other people injured, admitted to a Ja