Authorities in Nigeria's northern Yobe State announced on Wednesday that at least 14 people had been killed in a Tuesday bombing at a football viewing center in the provincial capital Damaturu, ordering closure of all such centers.
"A total 14 people died in the blast while 26 people sustained varying degrees of injury," Yobe police spokesman Nansak Chegram said in a statement.
"An explosive device had been kept in a car parked near the viewing center which later exploded," he explained.
The blast occurred at a football viewing center in the Damaturu metropolis during a Brazil-Mexico World Cup match.
Jide Adeoye, an eyewitness, told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that over 50 football fans had been at the viewing center at the time of the blast.
A medic at the Sani Abacha Specialists Hospital in Damaturu told AA earlier today that he had counted 13 corpses in the morgue.
A nurse working the night shift told AA that the bodies had been brought by police and military patrol vehicles last night and deposited at the mortuary.
Damaturu is located some 120km from Maiduguri, the provincial capital of Borno State and a Boko Haram stronghold.
In the past, the city has witnessed few bomb attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden" in Nigeria's local Hausa language, has been blamed for numerous attacks and thousands of deaths over the past five years.
-Closure-
The authorities, meanwhile, announced the closure of all viewing centers in Yobe State.
"Police hereby order the immediate closure of all public viewing centers in the state for security reasons," Chegram said.
"The police also urge the general public to be conscious of abandoned objects and cars," he added.
This makes Yobe the third state to take such measure against the popular viewing centers in the past few weeks.
On June 12, authorities in Nigeria's central Plateau State banned the use of football viewing centers for the duration of the one-month-long World Cup.
The measure came barely 24 hours after a similar decision by authorities in the northern Adamawa State.
Endemic power failures often force Nigerian football fans to resort to watching must-see football matches at local viewing centers.
But viewing centers, especially those in the country's restive north, have been increasingly targeted by militants.
At least 14 people were killed earlier this month when a suicide bomber struck close to a viewing center in the town of Mubi in Adamawa State.
And in March, twin car bombings in Maiduguri – which targeted a viewing center and local shopping center – killed at least 45 people.
The northern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe have been the hardest hit by Nigeria's five-year-old Boko Haram insurgency.
By Olarewaju Kola
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
