Suspected Al shabaab militants ambushed a police vehicle escorting passenger buses along Lamu- Garsen road, Tana Delta Sub-county on Sunday morning.
The militants opened fire on the lead escort car at Lango La Simba, Nyongoro area where fatal attacks have happened before.
The passenger buses were headed to Mombasa from Lamu. Nobody was injured during the incident, according to police reports.
“The officers responded and a heavy exchange of fire ensued. The unknown attackers who were heavily armed had laid an ambush on the right side of the road at the scene as you face Gamba general direction,” a police report under OB6/20/12/2020 recorded at Gamba Police Station reads in part.
It adds that the vehicles in the convoy which were behind the lead escort car were stopped as the officers battled the armed men.
The attackers disappeared into the bushes as police engaged them.
Passengers buses from Lamu to Mombasa are escorted from Mokowe to Gamba.
Coast regional police boss Gabriel Musau said police are on trail of attackers.
“We will intensify security in the area to ensure passengers travelling for holidays are safe,” he told the Star on phone on Sunday.
Militants take advantage of dense Boni forest to hide and launch attacks at the road between Gamba area and past Mpeketoni.
Two police officers died and others were injured in a similar attack in the same spot on November 2017.
On January 2018, a passenger was killed and police officers injured after militants attacked buses near the same area.
On January this year, three passengers died after gunmen ambushed bused at the same stretch, a counter attack by security agencies led to death of four suspected gunmen responsible for the attack.
