Gunmen have stormed a riverside oil complex in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt in a fleet of speedboats and shot dead eight policemen and a civilian worker, officials say.
The gang seized sacks of money before making its escape, suggesting that robbery was at least part of its motive, but the raid also came shortly after separatists threatened to step up attacks on the oil industry.
Africa's biggest oil industry is in crisis after two months of increasingly violent attacks on company sites and the kidnapping of four foreign oil workers by an armed ethnic militia.
Local resident Damka Pueba told AFP she heard gunfire from a site known as the Agip Industrial Area in the Mgboshimini area of the city, a large complex of offices, workshops and jetties run by the Italian energy giant.
"One of the staff came out, she was crying. She said some boys came in speedboats and got into the company and just started shooting," Ms Pueba said, adding witness saw dead policemen being loaded onto a jeep.
"The installation was attacked between about 2.00pm and 2.30pm. The attackers came over the water and attacked the section of the base which houses a bank," Maurizio Bungaro said, Italy's consul general in Nigeria.
"The attackers killed nine people in all, eight police officers and a Nigerian employee ... there were no dead among the assailants. The attack was well organised and they were able to take their loot and go," he said.
Port Harcourt's police chief, Commissioner Samuel Adetuyi, confirmed that there had been an incident, but gave no details.
The gunmen were clad in camouflage fatigues and military-style berets and killed an accountant before making off in their boats with two large bags of money, Ms Pueba says, citing witnesses.
- AFP
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