Story highlights
A third bomb blast is confirmed in Nigeria, Red Cross says
At least eight people reported were killed, including a suicide bomber
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemns the attacks
At least eight people were killed, including one suicide bomber, and dozens were wounded in three bomb blasts in central and northern Nigeria on Thursday, the Red Cross said.
The targets of the first two bombs were newspaper offices, the country’s president said. The third blast, in the northern state of Kaduna, was confirmed by emergency management officials, but no information on casualties or damage was available.
In the first incident in Kaduna, a man drove a vehicle into a two-story building that houses three national newspapers: ThisDay, The Moment and The Sun. According to a reporter at one of the dailies, when the car hit the wall, passers-by and newspaper staff ran to the site to see what happened.
According to the Red Cross, the bomb did not explode on impact, and the bystanders tried to get the suspected bomber out of the car. Once that was accomplished, the suspect threw a bomb at the bystanders, killing four and wounding 19, then tried to flee, the Red Cross said.
Other bystanders caught the suspected bomber and turned him over to police.
Within 30 minutes of the first blast in Kaduna, a suicide bomber in the central city of Abuja detonated a bomb that killed four people, including himself, said the Red Cross, which described the explosions as “the first direct attack on the media by (an) unknown armed group.”
Seven people were wounded, it said.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the attacks on the newspaper offices, calling them “ignoble, misguided, horrendous and wicked.”
Journalist Safiya Akau contributed to this report.