Explosions and heavy gunfire were heard Saturday near a police station in northeastern Nigeria, which is home to a radical Muslim sect.
Officials say that gunmen attacked a police station in the city of Geidam in Nigeria’s Yobe state, near the country’s border with Niger. Witnesses say the attackers also bombed a bank in the area. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Local authorities did not identify suspects in the attack, which is similar to earlier assaults by the radical sect Boko Haram, which seeks to impose strict Islamic law throughout Nigeria. The group has also carried out a wave of bank robberies in the region.
Geidam is the home town of Yobe state governor Ibrahim Geidam.
Boko Haram has taken responsibility for several recent attacks, and for a 2009 uprising in the northeastern city of Maiduguri in which churches and government buildings were attacked. More than 700 people were killed.
Nov272011