A team of Counter Terrorist Squad, from Area Commanders Office Warri, killed a member of the kidnapping gang that attacked Prison Officers from the Warri Prison who were taking suspects to High Court Warri, Delta State.

The unlucky member of the gang, according to reports, met his waterloo at Isiokolo, Head Quarters of Ethiope West Local Area after several rounds of exchange of gun fire which started from Warri.

The body of the killed kidnapper has since been deposited at Warri Central Hospital Morgue.

Recall that a kidnap gang on Wednesday attacked Warri Prison Officers on their way to Warri High Court with some suspected kidnappers, killing two warders and a suspect on the spot and made away with their colleagues they came to release.

Sources say that nine suspects were being taken to court before the ugly incident took place at Esisi Road Junction along the ever busy Okere Road. Out of the nine suspects, four suspects have already been brought  back to the prison. Three of them were arrested by the public while one voluntarily returned by himself. Four are said to still be at large.

According to the Area Commander Warri, Husseini Rabiu, (ACP), men of the Counter Terrorist Squad gave the kidnap gang a  hot chase which lasted for several hours until they were able to hold them to a stand still leading to the death of a member of the gang while the rest escaped into the bush. All the police men in the team came back unhurt.

The police source said two of the kidnap suspects simply called Francis and Rufus who were taken from the prison van may have sustained serious injuries as a result of the bloody shoot out.

He said that the jeep in which members kidnap gang were running away to their hideout which they abandoned when they could not withstand the superior power of the police, a Honda Pilot Jeep with Registration Number:GQ646LND, was recovered at Isiokolo.

On how the kidnappers managed to beat all the road blocs mounted by the military at strategic junctions, the ACP disclosed that the gang took the Otokutu Community road to UsiEffurun area and came at at Agbarho where they were able to negotiate towards Isiokolo thereby avoiding the road blocs.

It was reliably gathered that the owner of the Honda Jeep was in the vehicle while the shooting was going on. He was rescued without sustaining an injury in spite of the fact the the car was riddled with bullet.

A security source disclosed to Blank NEWS Online that as a result of the sporadic shooting during the exchange of gun fire, a taxi driver was hit by stray bullet on Ogunu Bridge.

The driver is said to be receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital in Warri while another victim of stray bullet along the NPA Express near Army Barracks Effurun was not very lucky as the man died on the spot.

Palpable fear has however gripped Delta State following the invasion of Warri by gunmen who killed at least seven officials of the Nigeria Prisons Service.

Sources said that four of the prisons officials were killed on the spot when the gunmen suddenly opened fire on their vehicle. Three other officials were said to be lying critically hurt in an undisclosed hospital in the area following gunshot wounds they received during their gun battle with the attackers.

Police authorities revealed that the gunmen laid an ambush for the court-bound van, operating with two vehicles parked in about 200 meters from the Warri Prison at the ever-busy roundabout and unknown to the prison officials.

According to Mr. Rabiu, three other prison officials who were shot were being treated in an undisclosed hospital. He further stated that three of the prison inmates who fled with the attackers after the encounter had been re-arrested by the police and handed over to the Prisons Department in Warri.

Meanwhile fresh reports say that a prison warden simply identified as Mr Oche, driver of the van that was attacked by the kidnappers, has passed on, bringing the number of casualties to six.

Nine detainees awaiting trial escaped from the prison vehicle just as the police in Delta state said they have recaptured two of the escapees.

One of the escaped inmates was killed in a shoot out while a fourth one had been delivered to the police by his pastor.

Five of the suspects remain at large and they are all armed and dangerous.