ANKARA 

Unidentified gunmen killed two police officers in an attack on a police station in southern Nigeria and freed all detainees in the cell, according to local media reports Thursday. 

The gunmen attacked Obosi police station in the Idemili North local government area of south-central Anambra state, the reports said, adding they also set fire to the police station after letting the detainees flee.

Ikenga Tochukwu, the spokesperson for the Anambra state police, said the two officers were killed during a shootout with the gunmen, adding a crack team has been deployed to the crime scene for an assessment and investigation.

A curfew was declared in the state last month due to increased armed attacks.

There have recently been several attacks on police stations, especially in southeastern Nigeria, where at least 14 police officers lost their lives from April 19 to May 1, while some others were wounded, according to reports.

Southern Nigeria occasionally faces such attacks, which have been mainly carried out by members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a movement that seeks to carve out a separate homeland for the country's ethnic Igbo population.

An attempt by ethnic Igbo to break away from Nigeria in 1967 culminated in a 30-month civil war that claimed the lives of nearly 2 million people, mostly Igbo civilians.