Suspected Boko Haram militants and suicide bombers attacked Nigeria’s northern city of Maiduguri in Borno state on Wednesday from a cashew plantation a few kilometres from the Giwa barracks, military sources said.

But the attacks appeared to have been foiled.

Residents said they heard heavy shooting and explosions on the outskirts and began fleeing their homes. The fighting began around 6:45 p.m. (1745 GMT) before subsiding by around 9:00 p.m. (2000 GMT).

Abdul Musa, a resident, said the intense fighting had dwindled to a few intermittent gunshots.

The city of around two million people is the birthplace of Boko Haram, which has killed thousands in its attempt to carve out an Islamist state in the country’s northeast.

Maiduguri has not been attacked since two major takeover attempts in late January and early February and several bombings in March.

A security source, who participated in the operation, said they fought off several hundred insurgents, which included suicide bombers.

“Some civilian youth vigilante who went to battle may have lost their lives,” he said. “(They) were trying to evacuate some women from a community behind the Giwa barracks when a bomb exploded from a woman suspected to be a suicide bomber.”