Hell, it seems, was let loose yesterday, as some gunmen, thirsty for blood, swooped on the Delta police command, and succeeded in mowing down no fewer than seven policemen, a member of the Joint Task Force (JTF), including a female officer, at different locations in Delta State. It was a day of rage and blood. The security personnel were reportedly killed by gunmen adorned in Nigeria Police uniforms, along major roads between Ibusa in Oshimili-north Local Government Area; Agbor in Ika-south Local Government Area and the university town of Abraka in Ethiope-east Local Government Areas of the state. A divisional police officer (DPO) was said to be among the policemen killed at Abraka, THISDAY gathered. A soldier attached to the joint patrol unit was also killed during the operation, which coincided with the private visit to the state by the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan. Mrs. Jonathan was in Effurun-Warri yesterday at the opening ceremony of an ultra-modern health and beauty centre owned by a lawyer, Mrs. Joyce Bozimo. The disturbing report was confirmed yesterday by the Delta State Police Command, who also revealed that the men of the underworld equally suffered some fatalities. However, the bandits said to number about eight practically held Ibusa community hostage for a while before a detachment of policemen arrived to confront them. Four policemen lay dead in the pool of their own blood after the Ibusa operation. Among the policemen killed was the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Abraka, Mr. Tim Chibukewe, a superintendent of police (SP), as well as Mr. John Danladi, an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) said to be “a well-known crime buster”. Eye-witness accounts said the bandits stormed Ibusa town in a red Toyota Camry salon car and a bus, holding the town hostage as they raided two banks where an un-estimated but huge sum of money, was reportedly carted away by the gang. It was learnt that the police receiving the information stormed the scene where a gun duel ensued leaving five members of the gang dead and others escaping through Ogwashi-Uku. It was also gathered that Danladi, who was only ordained an evangelist two days ago at the Tree of Life Church, Ogwashi-Uku, had led the Anti-Robbery Squad that chased the criminals to Igbodo along Benin-Agbor-Asaba express way where the squad met their untimely death. The Abraka DPO, it further gathered lost his life when he ran into the robbers at Igbodo on his way to Asaba. Another eye witness account said the robbers, numbering about 20, operating in a two Toyota Hiace buses, discretely drove close to an Anti-Crime Patrol van and opened fire immediately they noticed they were policemen, killing all the occupants of the vehicle on the spot. The killings come barely four days after the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba announced that the efforts of his command at crime prevention and control had paid off handsomely. The police commissioner last week paraded some armed robbery suspects with the display of foreign currencies, including dollars amounting to about N3.9 million, allegedly recovered from the suspects. The state police command spokesman, Mr. Charles Muka, a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), said while confirming the report to THISDAY on telephone from Asaba yesterday, that five members of the armed gang also met their waterloo during the attacks on security operatives. Some money in a large bag (popularly called ‘Ghana-must-go’) as well as a significant quantity of ammunition was recovered from the bandits, he said, assuring that the state police command had “already spread its dragnet to track down the hoodlums during exchange of gunfire by the police”. THISDAY reliably gathered that the robbers wielded AK-47 riffles and other dangerous weapons after robbing the new generation bank. Another army officer, attached to the Joint Task Force (JTF) was also shot dead by the robbers that blocked the Agbor end of the Benin - Onitsha expressway. THISDAY was told that a JTF officer was shot when the team was chasing the robbers. Following the gun duel between the fleeing robbers and the JTF members along the Benin-Asaba expressway, commuters had difficult times getting to their destinations as both private and commercial vehicles were forced to park off the road for fear of falling victims of stray bullets. Meanwhile, the remains of the victims were said to have been been deposited at various hospitals in the state.