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Nigeria: Bomb at Maiduguri police HQ kills four | |
(40 minutes later) | |
A suicide car bomb outside the police headquarters in the Nigerian north-eastern city of Maiduguri has killed at least four people, police say. | |
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. | |
There is a huge security presence in Maiduguri, which is the stronghold of Boko Haram. | |
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. |