Two foreign tourists and their Ugandan guide have been killed in an attack by suspected Islamist rebels, police have said.

The attack happened in the Queen Elizabeth National Park - one of Uganda's most popular conservation areas - according to police.

"We have registered a cowardly terrorist attack on two foreign tourists and a Ugandan in Queen Elizabeth National Park," police spokesperson Fred Enanga wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"The three were killed, and their safari vehicle burnt," he added.

Mr Enanga said police were pursuing suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) - an armed group aligned with Islamic State (IS).

A spokesperson for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Bashir Hangi, said the attack took place on the outskirts of the park on Tuesday evening.

Mr Hangi said the authority was working with security agencies "to establish who could have carried out this heinous act".

He did not give details on the tourists' nationalities.

The park is located in a remote area of Uganda, on the eastern bank of Lake Edward and near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The ADF - a group considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government - was originally formed out of western Uganda, but later expanded into the neighbouring DRC.

From its formation in 1996 until 2019, it was one united group. However, it fragmented following the arrest of its long-term leader, Jamil Mukulu.

Under its new leadership, the group pledged affiliation to the Islamist terror group IS in 2019, and joined its central African division.

Ugandan troops are currently working alongside regional forces in the DRC to hunt down ADF rebels.

In June, the group was accused of massacring at least 41 people, most of them students, in a raid on a remote Ugandan community near the border.