Drunk Ethiopian police shoots dead two colleagues

A drunk police officer shot dead two colleagues in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday, state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The policeman who fired on his colleagues was also shot dead, Federal Police Commissioner Zeynu Jemal was quoted by Fana as saying. The attacker was intoxicated with alcohol at the time, Zeynu said.

Zeynu made no mention of any possible ethnic motivation behind the shooting, which comes after an escalation of ethnically-charged violence in Ethiopia.

Two federal police members were killed in an attack carried out by their colleague in Addis Ababa at Bole area. The attacker, who is also a federal police member, was killed.

— FANA BROADCASTING C (@fanatelevision) October 4, 2018

The police commissioner did not immediately answer phone calls from Reuters requesting further details.

Roads in the central district of Bole where the shootout occurred were blocked off, residents said, but by 0630 GMT, calm appeared to have returned to the area, they said.

REUTERS