10 killed, students abducted in Nigeria

LAGOS: Ten people including two police officers have been killed and a number of students abducted in Nigeria’s southeast, police said on Friday, in a region where separatist tensions are on the rise.

Dozens of security operatives have been killed during attacks by gunmen on checkpoints, police stations and prisons in the region in the past few months. On Thursday, gunmen stormed Obosi police station in Anambra state but were engaged in a gunbattle by police officers on duty.

"Two police operatives paid the supreme price," state police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu said in a statement, adding an investigation was under way to identify the perpetrators. He said the gunmen also set part of the police station and two vehicles ablaze before fleeing. In a separate incident Thursday, a team of police and other security forces repelled an attack on Orlu police station in neighbouring Imo state, police said.