Over 200 people were feared killed in Kano during a multiple bomb blast that rocked the central mosque during Friday prayer.
The attack at the Grand Mosque in Kano, the biggest city in the mainly Muslim north of the country, came just as Friday prayers had got under way.
The mosque is attached to the palace of the Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II, Nigeria’s second most senior Muslim cleric, who just last week urged civilians to take up arms against Boko Haram.
The blasts came after a bomb attack was foiled against a mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri earlier on Friday, five days after two female suicide bombers killed over 45 people in the city.
National police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told AFP that the bombers blew themselves up in quick succession then “gunmen opened fire on those who were trying to escape”.
Ojukwu said he did not know whether the suicide bombers were male or female, after a spate of attacks by women in recent months, and did not give an exact figure on the number of gunmen.
But he said an angry mob killed four of the shooters in the chaotic aftermath.
Worshipper Aminu Abdullahi and local resident Hajara Tukur both said that there were two explosions in quick succession and a third in a nearby road.
A senior rescue official said 64 bodies had been brought to just one Kano area hospital, while 126 people had been admitted with injuries at three facilities.
“Those figures are going to climb,” he said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Witnesses say the attack was so massive the number of deaths is in hundreds. Some witnesses, who helped with rescue before police arrived at the scene, said the figures may be as high as 300.
These people woke up this morning with no thought of dying...so it could have been anyone. For how long will this continue? For how long will innocent blood be shed and we fold our arms like everything is ok, or like its normal for people to die daily in this manner? My heart bleeds for this country. Please vote wisely in 2015.
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