A number of students were feared killed and more than 30 injured in fighting between Muslims and Christians at a university in northeastern Nigeria, witnesses and local authorities said today.
The violence started late on Saturday night when the university's English department had planned to stage a fashion parade involving women dressed in a manner considered offensive by Muslim students.
"There was struggle in the University of Maiduguri and some students are feared dead, others injured," said a senior police officer in Maiduguri, 800 km (500 miles) northeast of the capital Abuja. He declined to give the number of dead.
One of the injured students, Obinna Okechukwu, said three people had been killed and more than 30 injured.
More than 200 died in riots in the northern city of Kaduna last year ahead of a planned Miss World beauty pageant opposed by Muslim students as immoral. The event was transferred to London to prevent further bloodshed.
Maiduguri University was closed this morning to prevent further bloodshed.
Over 10,000 people have died in ethnic, political and religious violence in Nigeria since elections in 1999 ended 15 years of military rule.