14 killed as Boko Haram raid police station in Gombe

Suspected Islamists killed 14 people in an overnight raid on a police station in Gombe, witnesses said Saturday.

“I have seen at least 14 burnt bodies in and around the police station,” a witness in Gombe said on condition of anonymity.

He said he counted 10 bodies inside the police building, adding the victims could be policemen, while four others were found dead in a burned car outside the station.

“At a roundabout between the police station and the prison stood a car that was burned down with all its four occupants. It’s not clear who they were,” the witness added.

Locals said the police station was completely burnt down in the attack.

Another resident, Babandi Ali, said “the police station has been razed and there are burned bodies inside, but I couldn’t confirm how many. However there is a burned car at the roundabout with four people burnt inside.”

A jail guard saidFriday night that prison officers battled Boko Haram gunmen who tried to gain entry to the prison in an apparent bid to free group members being held there.

“The prison is intact,” a resident who lives nearby said.

The sect has previously targeted Christian worshippers in Gombe

The gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists Friday launched simultaneous gun and bomb attacks on a prison and a police station in the northern city of Gombe, a jail guard and a resident said.

The attackers staged what residents said appeared to be coordinated attacks on a main prison where some Boko Haram members are believed to be held, and on a nearby police station.

“We are under siege. A large number of gunmen have encircled the prison, shooting and detonating explosives. It is clear they are Boko Haram,” a prison warden told AFP from inside the central prison in Gombe city.

A resident, Ibrahim Yau, said gunshots and explosions rang across the city for over an hour.

“There has been shooting and bomb attacks at the district police station in the centre of the city, and also the central prison,” he said.

The prison overlooks the police station and both are situated near the palace of the tradition Muslim leader, the emir, in downtown Gombe city, the capital of a state that goes by the same name.