Deadly car bomb rocks Nigerian capital

National police spokesman Frank Mba said that 12 people had been killed and 19 had been admitted to hospital after sustaining injuries. Some 70 people were reported wounded.

French news agency AFP put the death toll at 16, citing witnesses.

The explosion hit the suburb of Nyanya, close to the site of a morning rush hour bomb attack at a bus station on April 14 that killed at least 75 people.

Witnesses said a car laden with explosives appeared to blow up near the checkpoint where traffic had built up as soldiers and police searched vehicles. The checkpoint was set up after the bombing earlier this month.

“There was a loud blast then a ball of fire,” witness Lateef Adebayo told Reuters by telephone. “There were many dead bodies and ambulances were rushing there.”

Another witness, Joe Udofia, said there was a “deafening explosion, then the area near Nyanya bridge was on fire. There were many people in the vicinity.”

Civil Corps Defence spokesman Eman Ekeh says rescue services rushed to the scene. A Reuters photographer in a nearby hospital said charred bodies had been brought there from the site of the explosion.

Boko Haram suspected

It was not immediately clear what had caused the blast, which took place on May Day, a public holiday in the West African nation. Islamist group Boko Haram, which is waging an insurgency against the Nigerian government to carve out an Islamist enclave in Africa’s No. 1 oil producer, claimed responsibility for the April 14 blast in Nyanya, and threatened further attacks.

The blast came a week before Abuja was due to host the World Economic Forum on Africa, an annual gathering which brings together international leaders, policy makers, entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

Nigeria’s government had announced a big security operation to protect the capital during the forum.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, REUTERS)