An explosion ripped
through a school in northeast Nigeria on Monday, as students gathered for
morning assembly before classes began, a teacher and a medic told AFP. The blast happened at the GovernmentComprehensive Senior Science Secondary School in Potiskum, Yobe state, as
students waited to hear the principal’s daily address.
“The students had
gathered for the morning assembly when something exploded in their midst with a
thunderous sound at exactly 7:50 am (0650 GMT),” said one teacher. “The explosion has affected many students but
I can’t say how many because we are now evacuating the victims to the hospital
which is just 100 metres (yards) away,” the teacher added, sobbing.
A medic at the
Potiskum General Hospital where the victims were taken said scores of students
had been admitted.
“We are still
receiving casualties from the school which is a stone’s throw from here,” the
medic said.
“Our priority now is
to save the injured, so we have not started a headcount of the victims.”
A local resident,
Adamu Alkassim, said there was confusion in and around the school but the scene
was a mass of abandoned footwear and blood.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Boko
Haram militants are likely to be the prime suspects.
In July last year 42 students were killed when Boko Haram gunmen attackeddormitories with guns and explosives in a government boarding school in the village of Mamudo, near Potiskum.
Potiskum, the
commercial hub of Yobe state, has been repeatedly targeted by deadly attacks
blamed on Boko Haram. Just last week, at
least 15 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack targeting a Shia religious
ceremony in the city.
