Abuja: A series of coordinated bomb and gun attacks by a radical Islamist sect targeting police stations and the headquarters of Nigeria's secret police in northern city of Kano on Saturday killed nearly 150 people and injured several others, including Indians.
Rabiu Kwankwaso, the governor of Kano State, imposed a 24-hour curfew after the bodies, including those of several policemen, were found scattered all over the the state capital, Nigeria's second-largest city, which exploded into violence since Friday.
Authorities said militants, some of whom came as suicide bombers, targeted four police stations, the headquarters of the country s secret police, state security service (SSS) in Kano state and an immigration office.
A hospital worker on condition of anonymity said 126 dead bodies were piled up in a mortuary at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital in Kano. However, an eyewitness Emmanuel Iffer told PTI on phone that he was able to count some 140 bodies littered along the streets of the city which is the most populated in the north.
Most of the bodies seen along the roads were those of military men, according to Iffer. An official of the Red Cross, Nwakpa O. Nwakpa said his aid agency is still collecting the bodies and injured and taking them to emergency units of some hospitals or mortuaries.
The police are yet to come up with an official record and there was no response when calls were made to the spokesman, Olusola Amore. However, senior police sources expressed fears that the number could go upto 150 as many of the injured were in critical condition.
A doctor at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital said some of the injured persons were foreigners, including Indians who live close to the SSS headquarters, according to him.
Abul Qaqa, a spokesman of Islamic radical group Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the attacks.