Female jihadists attack Kenyan police station

At least two policemen were injured in the attack, which also caused a fire in the building, authorities said on Sunday.

The three women entered the busy police station saying they wanted to report a stolen phone.

"In the process one hurled a petrol bomb at the report office as the others confronted two officers and stabbed them," Mombasa County police chief Peterson Maelo told journalists at the scene. The women had hidden the weapons under their Buibui robes, traditionally worn by Muslim women in Mombasa.

A witness of the scene said one of the women had jumped onto a counter and stabbed an officer in the thigh before being shot.

"All the three attackers have been killed and the two police officers have been rushed to hospital," Maelo said, labeling the incident as "an apparent terror attack."

The authorities put out the fire and blocked the building.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident. In the past, Kenya has been targeted by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabab group, including the attack on the Nairobi's Westgate Mall in 2013 and the Garissa University massacre last year. The Somali-based group claims the attacks are the retribution for Kenyan anti-terror efforts in Somalia.

dj/tj (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)