Nagpur, March 13 (IANS) A gang of armed Maoists waylaid a truck carrying 16 tons of explosive chemicals in Maharastra's Gadchiroli district Thursday, sending security officials into a tizzy. Aerial and ground searches have been launched to find the looted consignment, officials said Saturday.

The Maoists hijacked the truck belonging to Keltech Energy of Nagpur and took it into the deep jungles of Dhanora sub-district, Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police S. Jaykumar told IANS.

The consignment was to be delivered to National Mining Development Corporation in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, he said. It is not known if the private transporter from Nagpur had informed the security agencies about the sensitive consignment, especially since it was to travel through some of the worst Maoist-infested areas of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

'After hijacking the truck, they took it to an unknown destination more than 20 km in the thick forests and unloaded the entire consignment of ammonium nitrate,' Jaykumar said, adding the Maoists held the truck driver, Bharat Prakash L. captive till they completed unloading the consignment and then released him Friday afternoon.

'He drove the truck to the Dhanora police station and registered a complaint more than 48 hours after the incident,' Jaykumar said.

Besides a large number of ground forces, the district police and Anti-Naxalite Squad (ANS) has also deployed a helicopter to trace out the stolen consignment.

So far, there is no sign of the large number of boxes making up the consignment and security officials are worried over its possible misuse by the Maoists.

Ammonium nitrate is a key component for making explosives and is similar to the ones used in the Feb 13 Pune terror blast and several others around the country in the past.