At least 47 students have been killed by a suicide bomber at a school assembly in the north-east Nigerian town of Potiskum, police have said. The explosion happened at a boys’ science and technical school in the town. Militant group Boko Haram is believed to have caused the blast, police said.
It has often targeted schools during its five-year campaign to establish an Islamic state, which has left thousands dead.
A suicide bomber disguised in a school uniform caused the explosion, survivors are quoted by Associated Press news agency as saying.
Police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told the BBC Hausa service the bombing had left 47 people dead and another 79 wounded.
Analysis: Will Ross, BBC Nigeria Correspondent:
By setting off the bomb during the morning assembly, the aim was clearly to kill as many students as possible.
Few of the attacks here are ever claimed by any group but Boko Haram will once again be suspected. The jihadists have carried out particularly brutal attacks on schools before.
The word “Chibok” is now known in many parts of the world because of April’s mass abduction of girls from that remote village. But there have been many other horrific attacks on schools which have received less attention – including last February’s raid on Buni Yadi, in Yobe State.
Dozens of boys were burnt to death, shot or killed with knives in the dormitory. Female students were spared but told to never attend school again, go off and get married. Boko Haram wants the education of boys to be limited to strict Koranic studies only.
The insecurity in the north-east is so rampant, with entire towns and villages now in the jihadists hands, it will be extremely hard for other bombings to be prevented.
The school was a mass of abandoned footwear and blood, resident Adamu Alkassim told AFP news agency.
“The students had gathered for the morning assembly when something exploded in their midst with a thunderous sound at exactly 7:50 am [06:50 GMT],” a sobbing teacher is quoted by AFP as saying.
Victims were being rushed to a nearby hospital, said the teacher, who asked not to be identified.
One student told the BBC he saw mutilated bodies of fellow students at the scene. A resident reported seeing parents wailing at the sight of their children’s bodies at the hospital.
Emergency operations are still ongoing at the school.
The blast underlines the lack of security in north-eastern Nigeria, says BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross.
Boko Haram, whose names means Western education is forbidden, is waging a sustained campaign to prevent children from going to school.
It believes girls should not attend school and boys should only receive an Islamic education.
BBC
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