A teacher of Nawaikorot community school in Napak district has been shot dead by suspected cattle rustlers.

Police spokesperson for Karamoja, Mike Longole in a statement has identified the teacher as Simon Peter Ilukol, saying the shooting happened at around 1am on Thursday night in Namakwei village, Ngoleriet sub-county.

According to Longole, the deceased heard strange noises and on coming out to ascertain what it was, he was shot by unknown assailants.

He adds that the rustlers were running for safety after falling into an ambush set by security forces, an incident where one of the raiders identified as Moses Keno, a resident of Lokitenge village, Kosike sub-county in Nabilatuk district was put out of action.

By the time of filing this story, a postmortem was yet to be conducted on the deceased teacher and a team of detectives have visited the scene as investigations into the matter kick off.