Nigerian police battle airmen

Nigeria's police and military have fraught relations

Two days of clashes between Nigerian police officers and the air-force has left some 27 people injured in the commercial capital, Lagos, police say.

The airmen set free suspected armed robbers who had been arrested, a police spokesman told the BBC.

An air-force officer was shot as he tried to disarm a policeman. His colleagues then attacked the police, leaving 26 in hospital, the police say.

Police spokesman Emmanuel Ighodalo said the problem had now been resolved.

He said the two forces were now conducting joint patrols in the Ikeja suburb of northern Lagos, where the clashes occurred near an air-force base.

Correspondents say that clashes frequently break out between the poorly paid police force and the military, which ruled Nigeria for 15 years until 1999.