Gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded many more today in an attack on a university theatre being used by Christian worshippers in Kano, a northern Nigerian city where hundreds have died in Islamist attacks this year.
Security sources said gunmen arrived on motorbikes and threw small homemade bombs into the theatre before shooting fleeing worshippers. There was sporadic gunfire in other parts of the city later on from attackers driven from the university by the army, the sources said.
Bayero University spokesman, Mustapha Zahradeen, said two university professors had been killed in the attacks.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has killed hundreds in bomb and gun attacks this year. It mainly targets police and authority figures but has also attacked churches.
The army said it had secured the area.
"The attack took place in one of the lecture theatres used as a place of worship by Christians. For sure there are casualties but I can't say how many," said Ikedichi Iweha, an army spokesman. "The elements came, used explosives and guns to attack them. We have repelled them and cordoned off the area.”
Clashes between Boko Haram gunmen and security forces have flared up several times in Kano since the sect killed 186 people in January, its deadliest attack so far.
On Easter Sunday, 36 people were killed when a suspected member of Boko Haram attempted to force a car packed with explosives into a church compound during a service in the northern town of Kaduna.
Boko Haram set off a series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day last year, including one at a church outside the capital Abuja that killed at least 37 people.
Africa's most populous nation of more than 160 million is split roughly equally between a largely Christian south and a mostly Muslim north.
Suicide car bombers targeted the offices of Nigerian newspaper This Day in the capital Abuja and in Kaduna last week, killing at least four people in coordinated strikes.
This Day is based in southern Nigeria and is broadly supportive of president Goodluck Jonathan's government – the main target of Boko Haram's insurgency.
Mr Jonathan has been criticised for failing to get a grip on the sect's wave of violence, which has gained momentum since his presidential election victory a year ago.
The president has relied mostly on a heavy-handed military approach to dealing with the violence and an attempt at mediated dialogue with the sect broke off last month after details of negotiations were leaked to the media.
Reuters