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Nigeria: Car bomb outside Maiduguri police headquarters Nigeria: Bomb at Maiduguri police HQ kills four
(40 minutes later)
A car bomb has exploded outside the police headquarters in the Nigerian north-eastern city of Maiduguri, a senior police officer has told the BBC. A suicide car bomb outside the police headquarters in the Nigerian north-eastern city of Maiduguri has killed at least four people, police say.
Residents in the city said they heard a loud explosion around midday (12:00 GMT). Following the blast, security forces in the city stormed a suspected hideout of the Islamist Boko Haram group, prompting a fierce gun battle, police told the BBC.
An eyewitness told the Reuters news agency he had seen many people killed in the blast. There is a huge security presence in Maiduguri, which is the stronghold of Boko Haram.
There is a huge security presence in Maiduguri, the base of the Islamist Boko Haram militant group. No group has yet claimed the attack.
However, Boko Haram - whose name means "No to Western education" - has targeted police stations, schools and other government buildings in the last 21 months.
The group wants to impose Sharia law across Nigeria.
"Many people, mostly members of the police which include men and women were killed in the explosion," eyewitness Ali Alhaji told Reuters.
Security sources said the death toll may rise.
Boko Haram first came to prominence in 2009 when hundreds of its followers were killed when they attacked police stations in Maiduguri.
Its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was arrested but died in police custody.
In 2010 the group started to stage drive-by shootings on government targets in revenge for his killing.
Last year, it carried out suicide bombings on high-profile targets such as the headquarters of the UN and police in the capital, Abuja.