Armed bandits kill two police officers in Tanzania's Coast region

Armed bandits on Wednesday dawn killed two police officers and stole seven firearms and 60 rounds of ammunition after raiding a police station at Ikwiriri in Tanzania's Coast region, a senior police officer said.

Ulrich Matei, the Coast regional police commander, said an unspecified number of armed bandits raided the police station at around 4:00 a.m. Wednesday and slashed one of the police officer with a machete and shot the other in the ribs, killing both of them on the spot.

"The armed bandits arrived at the police station pretending to be people who were seeking help from the police," Matei said, adding that after they had entered into the station they started attacking the two police officers who were on duty.

He said after they killed the two police officers the bandits broke into the armory and stole two sub-machine guns, three semi- automatic rifles, one anti-riot gun and one shot gun.

"They also stole 60 rounds of ammunition and destroyed a motor vehicle belonging to the police before they disappeared," said Matei.

Matei announced a 13,000 U.S. dollars award for anyone who will give information that will lead to the arrest of the bandits.

In September 2014, an unknown number of armed bandits raided Bukombe police station in the lake zone region of Geita and killed two police officers, wounding two others. Endi