At least 24 people were feared killed in a series of explosions that rocked a Christian neighbourhood in Nigeria's second largest city of Kano, officials said today.
Residents said that the attackers, suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents, carried out four big explosions yesterday targeting pubs on Enugu street in the Muslim-majority northern city.
Ikedichi Iweha, a spokesman for the Military Joint Task Force, said earlier today that 12 people died at the scene and some were wounded in last night's attack, which he blamed on suspected members of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram network.
But hospital officials said their mortuary had 24 bodies brought from the scene.
Nigeria is fighting an Islamic uprising by Boko Haram based mainly in the northeast, where the government has declared a state of emergency.
The group has been blamed for coordinated suicide blasts at a bus park in Kano in March that killed at least 41 people.
Kano has been among the cities hardest hit during Boko Haram's insurgency, though in recent months it had seen a lull in attacks.
The insurgency is estimated to have killed more than 3,600 people since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
Aside from churches and other targets linked to the Christian community, Boko Haram has attacked the security forces, moderate Muslim clerics and various symbols of authority.
