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Abuja blast 'hits' Nigeria police headquarters | Abuja blast 'hits' Nigeria police headquarters |
(40 minutes later) | |
A powerful explosion has hit the Nigerian police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, officials say. | |
"The police force headquarters has been bombed, everywhere is bombed," deputy police spokesman Yemi Ajayi told AFP. | "The police force headquarters has been bombed, everywhere is bombed," deputy police spokesman Yemi Ajayi told AFP. |
Local TV stations also said the blast was a bomb, Reuters news agency reports, and a large plume of smoke can be seen rising from near the building. | |
There are no details of casualties and no-one has claimed responsibility for the attack. | |
However, Islamist group Boko Haram has recently been targeting police and government officials. | |
The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Lagos says for the Nigerian authorities the attack is an embarrassing strike at the very heart of their security establishment. | |
Residents say the explosion was heard across the city. | |
"My windows were shaking and I heard the loud noise. I saw smoke coming up. I think it was from the car park of the police station," Reuters news agency quotes one witness as telling a local television station. | |
Mr Ajayi said several vehicles had been blown up. | |
Most of Boko Haram's attacks have been in the northern city of Maiduguri. | |
But the group said it was behind a series of bombings that took place hours after President Goodluck Jonathan's inauguration last month. | |
The group accuses Nigeria's government of being corrupted by Western ideas and wants to overthrow the state and impose Islamic law on the country. | |
It has killed dozens of people, mostly shot by gunmen riding motorbikes, in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. | |
Last year, officials blamed two explosions in Abuja during celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Nigeria's independence on militants from the oil-rich Niger Delta. |