Nigeria: mosque attack leaves 8 people dead

Eight worshippers were killed and 16 others injured after a man attacked a mosque with a locally made explosive in northern Nigeria’s Kano state.

The suspect attacked the mosque in Kano’s remote Gadan village “purely in hostility following prolonged family disagreement,” police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna said.

“The worshippers were locked inside the mosque, making it difficult for them to escape,” reports said.

“Some children ran for their lives with fire all over them. We had to put water to quench it,” Hussaini Adamu, a resident said.

The police cordoned off the scene while the injured were rushed to a hospital in the state capital.

Eight of those injured died later in a hospital and four children were among the injured worshippers, although it was not clear if any of the children died.

The incident caused panic in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest state, where periodic religion-related unrest has occurred over the years, sometimes resulting in violence.

The suspect invaded the mosque with “a locally prepared bomb and exploded it,” local police chief Umar Sanda told reporters. “It has nothing to do with terrorism.”