Story highlights The women came in asking to report a crime, then began stabbing officers, police say

Al-Shabaab suspected to be behind the attack, police say

Mombasa, Kenya (CNN) Three veiled women were killed by Kenyan police after they launched an attack Sunday on a police station in the port city of Mombasa, a local commander said.

A petrol bomb was thrown and officers were stabbed in the attack on Mombasa's Central Police Station, which Mombasa county police commander Patterson Maelo described as a terrorist incident.

The attack began when the women, their faces covered with buibui, a black shawl worn by many Muslim women in east Africa, entered the police station complaining their phones had been stolen, Maelo said.

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One of the women then threw a petrol bomb, while the other two stabbed police officers. Police responded by shooting the women, killing them, he said.

The women were wearing bulletproof vests, he said. Images from the scene showed bomb detector units checking the women's bodies for explosives.