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A suicide bomber has struck at a school in northeast Nigeria, killing
48 students, the AP news agency has reported.
The attacker – disguised in a school uniform – reportedly detonated
explosives as about 2,000 students were gathered for Monday morning's
weekly assembly at the Government Technical Science College in
Potiskum, Yobe state.
The number of dead was put at 48 by survivors and a morgue attendant
speaking to AP.
"We have so far taken 13 bodies to the hospital and over 30 with
various degrees of injuries," a rescue worker was quoted as saying.
"The students had gathered for the morning assembly when something
exploded in their midst with a thunderous sound at exactly 7:50 am
(0650 GMT)," a teacher at the school was reported as saying."
A teacher said: "The explosion has affected many students but I can't
say how many because we are now evacuating the victims to the hospital
which is just 100 metres away."
Victims of the blast were reportedly taken to the Potiskum General
Hospital, where staff said scores of students had already been
admitted.
"We are still receiving casualties from the school which is a stone's
throw from here," a doctor was reported as saying.
"Our priority now is to save the injured, so we have not started a
headcount of the victims."
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Yobe state
but police told AFP news agency that it was likely carried out by the
Islamist group Boko Haram.
At least 29 people were killed in another bombing in the town on November 3.
The group, which wants to create an Islamic state in northern
Nigerian, has previously carried out deadly attacks on schools
teaching what it regards as Western curriculum since 2009.
In February, gunmen killed at least 40 students after throwing
explosives into the dormitory of a government boarding school in Buni
Yadi, also in Yobe state.
In July last year 42 students were killed when Boko Haram attacked
dormitories in a gun and bomb attack on a government boarding school
in the village of Mamudo, near Potiskum.
Boko Haram's most high-profile attack on a school came in April, when
fighters kidnapped 276 girls from the town of Chibok in Borno state,
also in northeast Nigeria.
More than six months later, 219 of the girls are still being held.
