Unidentified gunmen abducted two Cuban doctors working in Kenya and shot dead a police officer, television broadcaster KTN News and the Daily Nation newspaper reported on Friday.

The Daily Nation said the attackers drove off with the doctors after shooting the officer in Mandera in the north-east of the country.

KTN News said police suspected the doctors and their abductors, thought to be members of the Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, had gone into Somalia.

In the past, Mandera has been the scene of frequent attacks, in which dozens of civilians and security personnel have been killed. Al Shabaab have taken responsibility for most of them.

Al Shabaab are fighting to topple Somalia's central government and establish their own rule based on their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

The group also conducts frequent assaults in Kenya, mostly in the region bordering Somalia, to put pressure on the Kenyan government to withdraw its troops from Somalia.