[DAWN] At least 21 people were killed and 17 injured when an kaboom tore through a crowded shopping district in the Nigerian capital Abuja during rush hour on Wednesday, a police front man said.It was not immediately clear what caused the blast. Two witnesses at the scene said it shattered the glass of nearby stores and sent plumes of smoke billowing into the air.
The kaboom rocked an area near the popular Banex Plaza shopping centre in the upscale Wuse 2 district, they said.
"After a preliminary investigation, we can confirm that 21 people were killed and 17 injured," police front man Frank Mba told news hounds at the scene of the kaboom.
"I heard a loud blast, it shattered the windows of the shop. We ran out. A lot of people ran too, some with blood stains," said Gimbya Jafaru, who was shopping nearby.
The blast came as the area was packed with shoppers and rush-hour commuters, an emergency services source said.
"This thing happened at a peak period," the source said, estimating that around 40 cars had been badly damaged.
Soon after the blast, emergency services were on the scene and the police and army had blocked off the surrounding area, a Rooters news hound on the scene said. A haze of smoke lingered over the area as the bomb squad combed the area for explosives.
Separately, a roadside kaboom blew up in the northeastern Adamawa state, although no one was injured in that kaboom, local police front man Othman Abubakar said Nigeria has been hit by almost daily bomb and gun attacks, which are widely suspected to be the work of turban group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
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