Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a police team conveying murder suspects to prison in Ilesa.

The Osun State police command reported three murder suspects lost their lives, while the gunmen escaped with gunshot wounds.

According to the spokesperson of the command, SP Yemisi Opalola, the police team were attacked after the Osunjela River, along Osogbo/Ilesa Road, when the vehicle taking the murder suspects to Ilesa prison developed mechanical fault.

“As the nearby Mechanics were working on the vehicle, four armed men emerged from Osunjela Road on a Bajaj Motorcycle and attacked the Police team by firing sporadically in a bid to hijack suspects,” he said.

The hoodlums, according to Opalola, abandoned their Motorcycle, three locally made guns, one pump action, two cut to size barrel guns with 14 live cartridges.

“Three murder suspects sustained several degrees of injuries and later died at Asubiaro hospital in Osogbo and deposited in the same hospital morgue. The hoodlums fled into the bush with bullet wounds,” she said.

Opalola further informed that the police in collaboration with the local security outfits and the youths of the community are combing the bush for possible arrest of the fleeing suspects.