Kenyan police officer kills six colleagues

An elite police squad was flown in from Nairobi to confront the gunman at the Kapenguria police station on Thursday.

"The gunman ... turned out to be a local police officer who for yet unknown reasons, went berserk and grabbed a firearm," police spokesman George Kinoti said in a statement late on Thursday.

A member of the elite squad was also killed, according to local reports.

Police said the shooter snatched a gun from a guard and opened fire. The officers then surrounded the building, which also houses a number of other inmates.

"His attempts to escape were thwarted by the quick arrival by other officers," said Kenya's police chief Joseph Boinnet.

None of the prisoners in the station at the time were injured in the stand-off or the subsequent raid, according to police.

Authorities initially reported that al-Shabab militants were responsible for the attack. There had been an assault on another police station in the east of Kenya, but it was repulsed, Boinnet said.

dj/msh (AP, dpa, Reuters)