Around 3:00 am on 12 January 1964, 600–800 poorly armed, mainly African insurgents, aided by some of the recently dismissed ex-policemen, attacked Unguja's police stations, both of its police armouries, and the radio station. The attackers had no guns, being equipped only with spears, knives, machetes, and tire irons, having only the advantage of numbers and surprise. The Arab police replacements had received almost no training and, despite responding with a mobile force, were soon overcome. Okello himself led the attack on the Ziwani police HQ, which also happened to be the largest armory on the island. Several of the rebels were shot down, but the police were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, with Okello impressing his men with his courage by personally attacking a police sentry and having wrestled his rifle from him, used it to bayonet the policeman to death. Arming themselves with hundreds of captured automatic rifles, submachine guns and Bren guns, the insurgents took control of strategic buildings in the capital, Zanzibar Town. At about 7:00 am, Okello made his first radio broadcast from a local radio station his followers had captured two hours earlier, calling upon the Africans to rise up and overthrow the "imperialists". At the time, Okello only referred to himself as "the field marshal", which prompted much speculation on Zanzibar about just who was this mysterious figure leading the revolution who spoke his Swahili with a thick Acholi accent, which sounded very strange on Zanzibar.