Seven people were killed and two others sustained gunshot injuries in attacks launched on two police stations in Auchi area of southern Nigeria Edo State on Tuesday, local police authorities said on Wednesday.

State commissioner of police Muhammed Hurdi confirmed in a statement made available to Xinhua that seven civilians were killed and two policemen sustained leg injuries in the attacks by gunmen.

"Contrary to reports, neither soldiers nor police officers were killed in the incidents, but the attacks were bloody," he said.

According to Hurdi, the gunmen attacks were respectively carried out on Auchi (police) Area Command headquarters and a Divisional Police Station in the area. Four commercial banks were also affected in the attack which lasted several minutes, he added.

The top cop said sophisticated weapons and dynamites were used freely by the attackers. "The robbers threw dynamite at the buildings were the banks were located," he explained, adding the attacks were coordinated.

He said no police weapon was taken away from any of the police stations and that investigation had commenced on the incident.

The attack on two police stations and four commercial banks in southern Nigeria's Edo State occurred barely 24 hours after the Nigerian police force confirmed that two of its officers were killed when unknown gunmen attacked their Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) headquarters in Abuja, the West African country's capital city.