No fewer than 120 died and 270 were
injured on Friday as the violent Boko Haram
sect bombed the 10,000 capacity Kano
Central Mosque where the Emir, Alhaji
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, usually leads
prayers.
About 10 gunmen went on a shooting spree
after the blast at the mosque, which is
close to the Emir of Kano's palace.
A rescue official, who spoke with Agence
France-Presse, put casualty figures at
almost 400, adding that 120 were killed and
270 hurt in the three explosions that rocked
the mosque.
The emir was said to have travelled to
Saudi Arabia late on Thursday night from
Paris.
Witnesses said the incident happened just
as residents were getting set for Friday
prayers.
"The attackers have bombed the mosque. I
saw people screaming," a local reporter who
resides in Kano, Chijjani Usman, told
Reuters.
Another eyewitness told the British
Broadcasting Corporation that he had
counted over 50 bodies immediately after
the blasts.
Also, the Editor, BBC Hausa Service, Mansur
Liman, was quoted as saying that people
had witnessed "horrible" scenes in a nearby
hospital.
One eyewitness, who spoke with the BBC's
Focus on Africa, said, "The imam was about
to start prayer when he saw somebody in a
car trying to force himself into the mosque.
But when people stopped him, he detonated
the explosions. People started running
helter-skelter."
Another worshipper, Aminu Abdullahi, who
also spoke to AFP, said, "Two bombs
exploded, one after the other, in the
premises of the Grand Mosque seconds
after the prayers had started."
"A third one went off in a nearby road close
to the Qadiriyya Sufi order. The blasts were
followed by gunshots by the police to scare
off potential attacks."
His account was backed up by another
witness, Hajara Tukur, who said she lives
nearby.
A senior rescue official confirmed that
several bodies had been brought to just one
Kano area hospital, while over 126 people
had been admitted with injuries at three
facilities.
"Those figures are going to climb," he told
AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was
not authorised to speak to the media.
A military official, Capt. Ikechukwu Eze, also
said scores of people were feared killed and
many others injured in the attack.
A check by one of our correspondents at
the mortuaries of both the Murtala
Mohammed Specialist Hospital and the
Nasarawa Hospital in the heart of the city
showed they were filled with bodies of
victims of the blasts while some of them
littered the ground.
Meanwhile, two suspected bomber were
said to have been arrested at the scene of
the incident, just as youths took to the
street to protest what they called
negligence by the police for not doing
enough to protect the lives and property of
the people.
The Kano State Police Command's Public
Relations Officer, Mustapha
Abubakar,confirmed the incident but
declined to give the casualty.
The emir had recently called for people to
arm themselves against Islamist militant
group Boko Haram.
Earlier this month, the emir told a prayer
meeting that people should "acquire what
they need" to protect themselves.
The Boko Haram terrorist group has killed
more than 2,000 people this year, according
to rights groups' reports.
The Kano blasts came after a bomb attack
was also foiled at a mosque in Maiduguri on
Friday morning; five days after two female
suicide bombers killed over 45 people in the
city.
The Emir of Kano last week doubted the
Nigerian troops' ability to protect civilians
and end the insurgency.
This had prompted his advice to Kano
residents to arm themselves against Boko
Haram attacks.
The Emir of Kano is an influential figure in
Nigeria, which is home to more than 80
million Muslims, most of who live in the
North.
Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked Kano
before. On November 14, a suicide bomb
attack at a filling station killed six people,
including three policemen.
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