At least eight
people were killed and 20 wounded by an explosion at a college campus in
the heart of the northern Nigerian city of Kano during school hours on
Monday, police said.
It was not immediately
clear if Islamist militants were behind the explosion. Bombings and
attacks by armed insurgents now happen almost daily in Nigeria's north,
where militant group Boko Haram is trying to carve out an Islamist
state.
The blast at the
Kano State School of Hygiene tore through an area just inside the
college's main gate, a popular spot where students often gather at food
kiosks between classes.
Police
took one suspect in for questioning, state police commissioner Adenrele
Shinaba told reporters. The blast was so severe that several cars
parked nearby were badly damaged, he said.
Witnesses said the blast caused people working in central Kano to flee the city centre.
Boko Haram gained global attention in April when it abducted more than 200 girls from a rural school in northeast Nigeria.
Kano,
the north's largest city, was hit by unrest earlier this month when
hundreds of youths took to the streets against a decision to appoint
Nigeria's former central bank governor as the country's second-highest
Islamic authority.
Last
month a suicide car bomber killed five people on a Kano street lined
with popular bars and restaurants, in an area mostly inhabited by
southern Christians.
Amnesty
International estimates that more than 1,500 people were killed in
northeast Nigeria in the first three months of this year.
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