An explosion has hit a busy shopping centre in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and there are reports of casualties.<\/p>\n
The explosion hit the capital’s Wuse district, reports said. Witnesses said the blast shattered windows and people could be seen fleeing the shops.<\/p>\n
It is not yet clear what was behind the explosion. Emergency services are attending the scene.<\/p>\n
Islamist militant group Boko Haram has bombed targets across northern Nigeria in recent years.<\/p>\n
Manzo Ezekiel, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, told AFP news agency: “You can see smoke billowing from the sky. It’s a very crowded place.”<\/p>\n
One witness told Reuters news agency that people could be seen running out of the shopping centre with blood on their clothes.<\/p>\n
“I heard a loud blast, it shattered the windows of the shop,” Gimbya Jafaru, who was shopping nearby, said.<\/p>\n
Boko Haram has staged previous attacks in Abuja, but most of its targets have been in the north-east of the country.<\/p>\n
In April, more than 70 people were killed in a bomb blast at a bus stop on the outskirts of the capital in an attack claimed by Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
In May, a car bomb near a bus station in the suburbs killed at least 19 people and injured 60 others.<\/p>\n
The group has hit Abuja several times before, including an attack on the United Nations national headquarters in 2011.<\/p>\n
It has come under the international spotlight after it recently abducted more than 200 girls from a school in northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An explosion has hit a busy shopping centre in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and there are reports of casualties. The explosion hit the capital’s Wuse district, reports said. Witnesses said the blast shattered windows and people could be seen fleeing the shops. It is not yet clear what was behind the explosion. Emergency services are attending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n