Two groups of loggers in the Andhra Pradesh state of India were reportedly killed by police officials on Tuesday as a result of a gunfight between the alleged illegal red sandalwood loggers and police. According to the New York Times, the battle resulted in the death of twenty loggers, with conflicting reports about police injuries.

The Times reports that there are conflicting accounts about what started the shootout. Police officials claim that the sandalwood loggers, who were stationed in the Chittoor forest illegally, attacked police with "firearms and axes," while forestry officials who were on site claimed that the loggers only had axes and that no police were injured.

While red sandalwood isn't popular in India, it is prized in China and Japan, where it can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars per ton. It is used to make "instruments, ornamental furniture, cosmetics, medicines and small statues of Buddha," the Times reports. But the loggers themselves are most always poor laborers; eleven of those killed Tuesday were migrant workers from the Tamil Nadu state. The response from leaders in Tamil Nadu has been swift, the Times reports:

Indian television stations on Tuesday showed bodies strewn on the forest floor, and political figures from Tamil Nadu denounced the killing. V. Gopalsamy, a regional party leader known as Vaiko, called it “unjustified and cruel firing.” He said officials would do better to file criminal cases, and prosecute and jail those engaged in illegal logging.

“After all, they were poor laborers and earning their bread and butter,” he said. “The real sharks, the smugglers, are sitting at a far distance, and police are killing poor laborers in the name of smugglers.”

The death toll in Tuesday's firefight is reportedly one of the greatest losses of life the red sandalwood smuggling trade has seen so far.

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