Deadly Attack On Nigeria's Bayero University In Kano.
At
least 15 people have been killed in a gun and bomb attack at a
university in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, witnesses and police
said.
Bodies were lying around Bayero University campus where Christian worshippers were holding a service.A bomb squad and military units are searching for the gunmen.
No group has said it launched the attack, but the violent Islamist Boko Haram group is active in Kano. It has recently attacked churches.
Nigeria's central government has struggled to contain the militant group, which operates mainly in the predominantly Muslim north, but has also struck as far south as the capital, Abuja.
Sunday's attack took place in one of the lecture theatres used as a place of worship by Christians.
The attack - on an apparent Christian service at an education establishment - would match up to threats the group has made in the past. Their name Boko Haram, translated from the local Hausa language, means "Western education is forbidden". It is a good reflection on the group.
Its purported aim is to destabilise the Nigerian state. Following the failure of talks to get the group to relinquish violence, the government in Abuja has conducted a number of crackdowns. But it appears to be unable to confront the group that is attacking Nigeria on a new front almost every week.
A witness told AFP news agency
the attackers had first thrown in explosives and fired shots, "causing a
stampede among worshippers".
"They now pursued them, shooting them with guns. They also attacked another service at the sporting complex."Another witness spoke of "pandemonium", and said he had seen two men shooting indiscriminately.
Mohammed Suleiman, a history lecturer at the university, said security guards had to run for their lives when the violence broke out.
"For over 30 minutes a series of bomb explosions and gun shots took over the old campus, around the academic blocks," he told Reuters news agency.
Officials have confirmed seven deaths so far, but warn that up to 20 were killed as bodies were lying around and being taken to hospitals.
"I counted at least 15 dead bodies. I think they were being taken to the Amino Kano teaching hospital," a witness told the agency.
Continue reading the main story
He added that he had seen many
more people being treated for injuries. Security officials and doctors
at local hospitals also say at least 15 people were killed.
Kano state police spokesman Ibrahim Idris said that by the
time police arrived, the attackers had "disappeared into the
neighbourhood". A manhunt is under way.Boko Haram carried out a bombing in Kano in January that killed more than 180 people, its deadliest attack to date.
Source BBC
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