UN investigation team 'attacked' in South Sudan - The UN mission in South Sudan has said its investigation team came under fire while probing reports of a massacre of nearly 80 people by armed men in uniform on Wednesday, the South Sudan-based UN-funded Radio Miraya reported on Saturday.

'According to local sources, so far 78 people are reported killed, 68 wounded, nine missing and thousands displaced,' U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky was quoted by the radio as saying.

It also quoted the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Lize Grande, who was speaking at a press conference in Juba on Thursday, as saying that one team member was shot and was immediately evacuated.

She said another investigation team had been deployed to Tonj East of Warap State to carry on with the investigation.

'Our team in Mayendit did come under fire and we had seven UN personnel that needed to be extracted. Unfortunately one of the team members was shot... the person is fine...,' Grance said.

She added: 'We were very worried at the time as you can imagine and that's why the extraction was so urgent for us. So the work in Tonj East is continuing but we had to urgently pull that team out of Mayendit; we had to get them into safety.'

Pana 04/02/2012