Shooting, Blast At College In Kano: Witnesses

Gunshots and an explosion hit a college in the north Nigerian city of Kano on Wednesday and multiple casualties were feared, witnesses said.

Students and workers at the Federal College of Education in the Kofar Kabuga area of the city fled in panic as shots rang out and an explosion ripped through the campus at about 2:00 pm (1300 GMT).

There was no official confirmation from local police and no immediate indication of the number of casualties but two witnesses told AFP they saw at least five vehicles taking away casualties.

Educational establishments in Nigeria’s second city, and the commercial capital of the north and a centre of Islamic scholarship dating back centuries, have been hit several times in recent months.

On July 30, a female suicide bomber killed six people after detonating her explosives at a noticeboard on the campus of the Kano Polytechnic College while students were crowded around it.

The attack was the fourth by a female bomber in the city in a week and prompted the authorities to cancel celebrations marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

On July 27, another female bomber blew herself up outside a university in Kano after police prevented her from getting inside the campus.

A previous bombing on June 23 killed at least eight when it went off in the grounds of the city’s School of Hygiene.

The bombings were linked to Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgent group opposed to so-called “Western education” that has been waging a deadly five-year insurgency in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north.