Gunmen bomb Nigeria police post, kill police, free inmates

Gunmen have bombed a police station in northern Nigeria, killing four policemen and setting free a number of detainees, a police chief and local residents said. "There was an attack by unknown gunmen on a police station in Misau town. I can confirm that four policemen were killed in the attack," police chief in Bauchi state, Ikechukwu Aduba told reporters on Monday. "The attackers also detonated two homemade bombs in the police station, setting it on fire," he said. He refused to comment on civilian casualties and reports of the freeing of detainees, saying he was yet to get updates on the attacks. It is the second time Misau in the northern state of Bauchi, repeatedly hit by violence blamed on the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, has been struck in the past months. A resident Muazu Maimukulli said by phone that a passerby was also killed during the raid on the police station. A second civilian was killed outside a bank as was a policeman guarding the same bank, residents said. Residents had earlier said the attackers opened fire on the police station with heavy machine guns that could be heard throughout the town before freeing the inmates, stealing weapons and setting the building ablaze. "Fire is still burning on the police station, and the attackers drove into town shooting into the air, apparently to scare away people, and everybody ran indoors," said Maimukulli. "A number of suspects were freed by the attackers from the police station." Two other residents gave similar accounts. Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bomb blasts, shootings and attacks on police stations, mainly in predominately Muslim northern Nigeria. The group also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on UN headquarters in Nigeria on August 26 that killed at least 23 people.