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killed after car bomb
explodes in the centre of
the town of Kaduna on
busy Easter Sunday.
Dozens of people have been
killed and others injured after
a car-bomb attack struck a
commercial area in the town
of Kaduna in northern Nigeria. At least 38 people were killed
in the blast on Easter Sunday,
Abubakar Zakari Adamu, a
spokesman for the Kaduna
state Emergency Management
Agency told the Associated Press. Others suffered serious
injuries and were receiving
treatment at local hospitals,
Adamu said. The explosion occurred on a
main road in Kaduna where
motorcycle taxi drivers and
passers-by caught much of the
blast. No one claimed reponsibility
for the blast, but authorities
suspect radical group Boko Haram, which has carried out similar
attacks in the past. Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege,
reporting from the scene of
the attack, said things had
calmed down considerably
after authorities and medical
officials had earlier been evaluating the damage. At least one car said to be
driven by a suicide bomber
was involved in the attack,
which according to initial
reports had taken place near a
church. "I'm standing just at the scene
where this car exploded and
contrary to initial reports, it
now looks like this car bomb
did not actually detonate
outside a church which had been earlier reported," Ndege
said on Sunday. "What it looks like is that
these individuals, clearly
suicide bombers, were on
their way to potentially a
location where they intended
to explode their devices. "Something clearly went
wrong because if you look at
the area where this car bomb
went off it's in the middle of
the main road which would
have had heavy traffic on Easter Sunday and many
ordinary people standing on
the side of the road selling
their wares. Suicide attack A rescue official told the AFP
news agency that two
vehicles packed with
explosives had detonated, but
this report remains
unconfirmed. A police officer at the scene
earlier said a man believed to
be a suicide bomber driving a
car was stopped at a
checkpoint near a church and
turned back, but drove to a nearby area close to a hotel
and detonated the bomb. Other cars in the area were
damaged, but it was unclear if
they were also carrying
explosives, he said. Police confirmed the explosion
was a bomb, but did not
officially comment further. "We have a bomb explosion.
We are trying to sort things
out," Aminu Lawal, a police
spokesperson, told AFP. Residents reported seeing
dead and injured people being
taken away, with medical
sources indicating several
deaths. One resident said the
explosion was strong enough
to shake his house and cause
his ceiling to cave in. "People have in one sense been
bracing themselves for
something, because the army,
the joint task force who have
been dealing with Boko
Haram primarily have warned of the threat of attacks," our
correspondent said. Although there had not been
any official government
reaction to Sunday's
blast, "just yesterday
[Nigerian] President Goodluck
Jonathan in a statement to the Nigerian people asked them to
be vigilant and asked them to
be defiant in the face of
potential terrorist attacks,"
Ndege said. 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 and wounded more than 50.. By al jazeer
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