Abuja: Two people, including a bomber, have died in an explosion at Nigeria’s police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, the police say. Police spokesman Olusola Amore said Islamist group Boko Haram was suspected of being behind the attack.
The blast in the car park of the police base destroyed many vehicles and a large plume of smoke could be seen rising from the scene.
A Red Cross spokesman told media that another four bodies had been recovered.
“Six to be precised. Six bodies from the explosion,” Nigerian Red Cross official Taiye Olaniyi said, adding that many of them had been “very badly mutilated”.
Seven other people were wounded in the explosion, five of whom were being treated in hospital, the Red Cross said.
The attack is an embarrassing strike at the very heart of their security establishment.
In the last few weeks, Boko Haram, which usually operates in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, has been stepping up its attacks on security targets.
The group said it was behind a series of bombings in the capital that took place hours after President Goodluck Jonathan’s inauguration last month.
On Tuesday, Nigeria’s police chief promised to decisively deal with the group by sending more troops and equipment to the north, declaring they would be finished within a few months.
“Definitely we are suspecting a group that goes by the name Boko Haram who have been issuing threats upon threats for which the police are rising up to that challenge”.
He said the attack on the car park of the police headquarters happened at about 1000 GMT leading “to the death of the suicide bomber and a police traffic warden”.
The police spokesman said a Mercedes packed with explosives had joined a police convoy that included the inspector general of police.
When the vehicles reached police headquarters the car with the bomb was diverted into an adjacent car park.
It then exploded. It is still not clear whether the driver wanted to kill himself, our reporter says.
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