Unidentified armed men killed two police officers on patrol in northeastern Benin near the border with Niger on Sunday, a local official said on Monday.

Benin's northern neighbours are insurgency-plagued Burkina Faso and Niger, making it vulnerable to cross-border attacks by groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

The two officers were travelling by motorbike when they ran into an ambush in Karimama district around 750 km (460 miles) north of the commercial capital Cotonou, Karimama's second deputy mayor Amadou Bonkanon told Reuters.

Bonkanon, who visited the scene of the attack, said the assailants had taken the victims' weapons and burnt a motorcycle before they fled.

In June, seven soldiers were killed by attackers suspected of being Islamist militants in northern Benin's Pendjari National Park, according to sources.