A police commissioner says a suicide bomber has detonated his explosive-laden car in northeast Nigeria, causing an unknown number of injuries.
An emergency management official says at least 25 people died in an explosion during Christmas Mass at a church near Nigeria's capital.
Slaku Luguard of Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency tells The Associated Press that 25 bodies were collected at the scene of the blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church near Abuja. Luguard said the blast happened during the church's Christmas Mass.
Luguard said officials still were working to determine how many people were injured the blast.
The attack Sunday was one of at least four explosions across Africa's most populous nation on Christmas Day.
A radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for attacks on two churches that left at least 25 people dead.
Local police commissioner Tanko Lawan said the suicide car bombing happened around noon in the Yobe state capital of Damaturu, targeting the headquarters of Nigeria's secret police in the area. In the last year, Boko Haram has carried out increasingly bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria.
The Vatican denounced the attacks on Nigerian churches and described them as a sign of "cruelty and absurd, blind hatred" that shows no respect for human life.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Catholic church was praying for all Nigerians confronting "this terrorist violence in these days that should be filled with peace and joy."
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement