Hundreds of Nigerian soldiers were reportedly chased from Damasak in Borno State, by the outlawed Boko Haram fighters, as the town was on Monday captured by the terrorists.

A military source said that the terrorists had earlier launched an attack on the town on Friday but were repelled by Nigerian troops who killed five of them.

They, however, reinforced and came back on Monday morning to launch a reprisal attack. The terrorists were said to have stormed Damasak in large number at about 5.00 pm.

“When they attacked on Friday we were able to sight them from afar and shot a mortal at them which hit their vehicle killing five persons instantly and they had to beat a retreat,” the military source said.

“We were also able to capture one of their buffalo vehicles as they did not know what hit them,” he added.

Although information about the casualty figures in the attack was still sketchy at the time of filing this report, our source said that the attackers killed many people. Scores of people have also reportedly fled the town while the army base there has been effectively taken over by the Boko Haram fighters.

A resident of the town confirmed on the phone said that the insurgents attacked and took control of the town and that he and several other people had fled the town