KANO (AFP) – Gunmen attacked a bakery on Wednesday in the northeastern city of Maiduguri  at the centre of an Islamist insurgency, killing at least two people and wounding three others, the military said.

A group of gunmen that the soldiers said were bandits stormed a bakery in the Ndayah area on the outskirts of Maiduguri and opened fire on workers, said Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for a special military unit deployed in the city.

“At about 0230 hours today suspected armed robbers attacked a bread bakery … The suspected robbers killed two and wounded three persons and carted away some unspecified amount of money, handsets and other valuables,” Musa said in a statement.

No arrests were made, according to the spokesman.

An official from the bakers union in the city however claimed six people were killed and six others wounded. He also doubted the attackers were armed robbers.

“We doubt the claim that the attackers were armed robbers because if they were robbers they would have only taken money and other valuables from the victims,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

“They would not have killed them in such gruesome manner. Robbing the victims was just a distraction,” he said, declining to speculate on who the attackers were.

Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of deadly attacks and targeted killings, but criminal gangs have also hidden under the cover of the extremists to perpetrate crime.

In April, five workers were shot dead when gunmen attacked a bakery in the city.