By Obinna Odenigbo
Multiple explosions and gunfire rocked the Nigerian city of Kano this evening, with residents reporting an immigration office and two police stations targeted with at least one person wounded.
Cruise Nigeria can confirm that one of the bombs that went off at the police station in Yar Akwa was the work of a suicide bomber!
An AFP journalist heard what sounded to be some 20 explosions coming from two neighbourhoods in the city, the largest in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north. Smoke could also been seen coming from the areas.
The loud explosions resulted in chaos, with motorcycles and cars fleeing the areas. The amount of damage or casualties was not immediately clear, and police had not immediately commented.
“At the moment, there is a heavy shootout between the immigration personnel and the police with the attackers, and bombs explode in between,” a resident near the immigration office said by phone.
“Now my dress is drenched in blood because I had to help carry someone shot in the shootout.” He said it appeared a passport office of the immigration service was targeted in the Marhaba area.
Another resident said it appeared a police station was targeted in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood.
“Several explosions have occurred at the Yar Akwa police station,” he said. “Everybody is running for his life. It’s chaotic.”
According to an orange seller who was selling oranges close to the Immigration office when the attack on that office started, the attackers were two in number.
“I was peeling my oranges when all of a sudden two men walked to the building and began shooting at the immigration personnel there. I saw at least three of them fall before I ran for cover,” he narrated.
one of the victims of today's explosions
It was after the shooting that the explosions began, he said.
A resident in Tarauni describes a very thick dark cloud of smoke in the sky visible from his location, most likely coming from the explosion at Ungwar Uku.
President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of four states on December 31- hard hit by attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
Kano was not one of the states included in the state of emergency and has not been previously hit by any of recent major attacks. Most of the attacks have occurred in the country’s northeast.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.
Sources: AFP, www.vanguardngr.com, www.saharareporters.com and http://www.france24.com
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