KANO (AFP) – Suspected  gunmen have killed at least five people and burnt immigration offices in a  town on the border close to Cameroon, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

“There was an attack on the town of Banki by suspected  terrorists who burnt down immigration and customs outposts, killing five people, including one customs and one immigration officer,” Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa said.

He gave no details about the identities of the other victims of the attack, which occurred on Tuesday night.

“They attempted to burn the police station in the town but the police gave them a good fight, forcing them to flee. No arrests have been made yet. Our men have deployed in the town in search of the gunmen.”

A resident in the town told AFP he saw eight bodies being evacuated on Wednesday by the police from the burnt buildings, but authorities had not confirmed the figure.

Banki, in the country’s northeast, has a popular market patronised by traders from Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. The market was deserted on Wednesday following the attack.

Boko Haram’s increasingly bloody insurgency has left more than 1,000 people dead since mid-2009 in Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer. Most of the violence has occurred in the northeast.

Police, soldiers and other symbols of authority have often been the victims of such attacks, though Christians have been targeted as well.

At least 41 people were killed while more than 30 others were wounded in a car bombing near a church in the Nigerian city of Kaduna on Easter Sunday. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Criminal gangs have also carried out a number of robberies and assaults under the guise of Boko Haram.