A rhinoceros was killed by poachers inside the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, while a member of the group of poachers was shot dead by wildlife staff in the park during an encounter on Thursday night.

Official sources said that on hearing the sound of gun shots inside the National Park, the wildlife staff mounted vigil along all the entry and exit points in the wildlife habitat.

A group of forest guards engaged in a gun battle with a group of poachers inside the park and killed one of the poachers. The guards recovered a rhino horn from the slain poacher's possession.

The park guards later found the carcass of a rhinoceros sans its horn during a search operation launched early on Friday morning.

This is the fourteenth incident of rhinos being killed by poachers inside the National Park in 2007.