ABUJA, Nigeria, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- One person was seriously wounded in Nigeria's Bayelsa State after a helicopter traveling to an oil facility was struck by gunfire, an oil executive said.
Mark Snoxell, head of Commercial of Aero Contractors, said in a statement that a passenger aboard one of the firm's helicopters was injured Wednesday when the chopper was hit by gunfire in the Tebidaba area in the Niger Delta, The Guardian, a Lagos newspaper, reported Thursday.
Snoxell said the attack near a Nigerian Agip Oil Company flow station damaged the helicopter, but the aircraft was able to safely return to base.
Lt. Col. Nkana Efik, commander of the Joint Military Taskforce in Bayelsa, said the helicopter was hit by single bullet.
"We are trying to trace where the shot came from. We are now talking to the pilot," Efik said," I think there was some kind of crisis there."
The Guardian said no group took responsibility for the attack. All flights to and from the oil station were canceled as a precaution.
This Day, another Lagos newspaper, said the helicopter was carrying 11 passengers and two crew members at the time it was fired on.
