Gunmen belonging to a gang of armed robbers fatally shot 8 people including a top military officer in an ambush on 4 cars travelling on a main road in Burundi, police reported.

Police wrote on Twitter that the assault took place late Sunday on a road between Bujumbura, the commercial capital of the central African country, and its political capital Gitenga.

Among the dead were a lieutenant colonel and a child he was travelling with. Police said “eight passengers dead, several injured and property stolen from them.”

A government worker in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter told Reuters that the offenders numbered around 10 were in civilian clothes and were armed with grenades and AK-47 automatic rifles.

There have been previous such assaults in the region which is located near the porous border with the Democratic of Republic Congo where violent lawlessness is widespread.

A group of gunmen that authorities said had been making incursions into the area from bases in Congo carried out several attacks in August and September, claiming at least 15 lives.