ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least eight worshipers were killed and 16 others injured Wednesday morning after a man attacked a mosque with a locally made explosive in Nigeria’s northern Kano state, resulting in a fire, police said.
The suspect, a 38-year-old local resident, confessed that he attacked the mosque in Kano’s remote Gadan village “purely out of hostility, following (a) prolonged family disagreement,” police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna said in a announced on Wednesday.
Eight of the injured later died in a hospital, Haruna later told local television channels on Thursday. Four children were among the injured worshipers, although it is unclear whether any of the children died.
The incident caused panic in Kano, Nigeria’s largest northern state, where there have been periodic religious-related riots over the years, sometimes resulting in violence.
The suspect broke into the mosque with “a locally prepared bomb and exploded it,” local police chief Umar Sanda told reporters. “It has nothing to do with terrorism.”
Footage broadcast by local station TVC showed charred walls and burnt furniture at the mosque, the main place of worship in Gadan village in Muslim-dominated Kano state.
Local media also reported that worshipers were locked inside the mosque, making it difficult for them to escape.
“Some children ran for their lives covered in fire. We had to add water to put it out,” Hussaini Adamu, a resident, told TVC.
Police cordoned off the scene while the injured were rushed to a hospital in the state capital.
“The disagreement (was) about sharing the inheritance that those who (the attacker) claimed to have betrayed him were in the mosque at that time and he did this so that his voice would be heard,” the police statement said.
