By Hossam Badawi

KHARTOUM

Two people were stabbed to death -- and five others injured -- by a knife-wielding “extremist” in Sudan’s eastern Kassala province, local police said Wednesday.

“An extremist attempted to deliver a sermon after evening prayers [on Tuesday] at a Kassala mosque,” Police Major-General Yahiya al-Hadi told Anadolu Agency.

“After mosque administrators prevented him from doing so, he took out a knife and murdered the mosque’s imam and one worshipper,” he said.

According to the police officer, the extremist -- who was not identified by name -- was himself later killed by worshippers inside the mosque.

Al-Hadi dismissed the notion that the attacker was part of a larger extremist group. Nevertheless, he said, police had detained several people involved in the incident.