NIGERIA: Several people were killed after a suspected suicide bomber hit a Catholic church in the city of Jos

Record ID: 235503

  • Title: NIGERIA: Several people were killed after a suspected suicide bomber hit a Catholic church in the city of Jos
  • Date: 12th March 2012
  • Summary: JOS, NIGERIA (MARCH 11, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF DAMAGED CHURCH, SIGN READING: "CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF JOS, ST. FINBARR'S PARISH RAYFIELD" PEOPLE INSIDE CHURCH WITH DAMAGED ROOF
  • Embargoed: 27th March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVAA6BY5D3M0WESY2Z0I7O0RGSPS
  • Story Text: A suspected suicide bomber attacked a Catholic church in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday (March 11), killing three people, authorities said.
    A Reuters reporter at the scene of the church bombing was unable to gain access, as the police had cordoned off the area around Finber's Catholic Church in the Rayfield suburb of Jos.
    Emergency workers said the blast occurred at around 10 in the morning local timing.
    Local television station NTV aired footage of bomb blast victims being treated at Plateau central Hospital.
    A doctor at the hospital said fourteen people were brought in with severe injuries from the blast.
    "Most of them sustained burns and penetrating injuries from the blast, and then we have three gunshot wounds victims, and they all stable," said Doctor Ishaya Pam Witnesses said the bomb went off as church security tried to stop the attacker from driving his car loaded with explosives into the church.
    Al Hassan Aliyu, the Jos coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said that at least three people were confirmed dead but could not confirm the actual figures of injured.
    Earlier NEMA called it a suspected suicide bombing, but Aliyu said this was not yet confirmed.
    Islamist sect Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a wave of bomb attacks on churches across Nigeria since Christmas Day.
    The bombing campaign has raised fears that the group is trying to ignite sectarian conflict in Africa's most populous country, split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register