Many killed as explosions hit Sabo-Gari, Kano

A series of blasts targeting buses loaded with passengers in Nigeria’s second city of Kano on Monday killed at least 20 people, a rescue official told AFP.

“I saw three buses on fire. One of them was fully loaded with passengers waiting to leave the station at the time of the blasts. At the moment there at least 20 dead,” said the rescue official who requested anonymity.

Residents said the explosion occurred at a bus station in city of Kano on Monday, causing panic and injured bystanders to flee the area, .

Victims injured in the blast in Kano bus park

The security forces did not immediately comment on the blast in the Sabon Gari area of Kano.

“There was a huge blast at the New Road motor park,” said area mechanic Tunde Kazeem.

“The blast was followed by billows of black smoke and there was a lot of confusion with people rushing out of the motor park, some of them with blood on their clothes.”

Kano is among the northern cities attacked repeatedly by Islamist group Boko Haram, blamed for killing hundreds in Nigeria since 2009.

The station was attacked in January of last year in a blast which wounded several people and which was blamed on Boko Haram, but it was not clear what caused the latest explosion.

The targeted station primarily services passengers heading to the mostly Christian south of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.