The attack on a police station in Tanougou on Wednesday night follows a wave of Islamist violence in Benin, its northern neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso and Mali further west.

A military source said there were "five dead: two police and three soldiers", adding that "defence and security forces are continuing to search the area."

One local in Tanougou, which lies on the edge the Pendjari National Park and attracts visitors to its forest waterfall, confirmed the incident but could not give a death toll.

There was no immediate comment from the Benin authorities.

North Benin, which borders both Niger and Burkina Faso, has seen a recent rise in attacks on army positions.

In mid-April, 54 soldiers were killed in the Benin section of W National Park, which straddles the porous border with Niger and Burkina Faso, in an attack on two military posts.

And in January, 28 Beninese troops were killed in the same area.

Both attacks were claimed by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM or JNIM in Arabic) which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

Benin's government has attributed those attacks to a spillover from Niger and Burkina Faso, both ruled by army officers who took power in coups on the promise of quashing the Sahel region's long-running jihadist scourge.

- Sahel security dispute -

The junta-led trio of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have turned their backs on the West and pulled out of West African bloc ECOWAS, branding it a tool for what they see as former colonial ruler France's neo-imperialist ambitions.

Banding together as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), the three have created a unified army and conduct joint anti-jihadist operations.

The trio have meanwhile closed off cooperation on rooting out Islamist violence with countries they consider too pro-Western, including Benin and Ivory Coast.

Tanougou was formerly one of the surrounding Atacora area's leading tourist attractions.

"This attack adds to our fears. We were wondering when things would calm down again," said a local guide, who asked not to be named.

"The fact that such an important symbol of tourism should be hit risks putting off the tourists even more," he added.

"Besides the loss of human life, it is a huge loss also for those of us who work in the tourist sector."

Benin's President Patrice Talon in March complained of "deteriorated" relations with Niger and Burkina Faso, saying the lack of security cooperation was making it hard to fight jihadists.

Niger has accused Benin of hosting foreign military bases to destabilise Niger, which Talon's government denies.