Official Report On The Kano Car Blast

Four people, including a young girl, have been killed after a suicide bomber blew up a car in busy night spot in the mainly Muslim city of Kano in Nigeria.

The vehicle was ripped apart by the blast in Sabon Gari, a predominantly Christian district of Kano.

Three men and the girl, aged around 12, died in the attack on a street lined with bars and eating places. Five people were also wounded.

The blast happened when the area was crowded with revellers as well as street hawkers and traders, and locals said it could be heard several miles away.

The city's police commissioner Adelere Shinaba said: "At about 2200 (local time), we heard an explosion and immediately mobilised to the scene where we discovered a suicide bomber ... five people, including the bomber, were killed."

He added that it was too early to say who was responsible, but early suspicion fell on militant group Boko Haram, which has been widely active in the region.

The explosion came a day after Nigeria and its neighbours announced a regional response to the threat by Boko Haram.

The Islamist militant group has been holding more than 200 girls who were kidnapped at gunpoint from a school in Chibok, northeastern Borno state, on April 14.

Kano is Nigeria's second-most populous city and a commercial centre for the whole of the Muslim-majority north.

Local government elections were held in Kano on Saturday, at which the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) routed the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) of President Goodluck Jonathan, winning all 44 seats.

The PDP alleged irregularities and said it would challenge the result, local newspapers said.

Security had been tight in the city after violence marred local elections in 2007.

Sabon Gari has also been attacked before. At least four strong explosions rocked the area on July 29 last year, killing 12.

Nigeria's military at the time blamed the attack on suspected Boko Haram members.