Suicide Bomber Kills Several Football Fans At World Cup–Watching Event In Nigeria
A suicide bomber has killed several people in northern Nigeria's Yobe state at a venue televising a World Cup match, residents and medics say.
By Sadho Ram — 18 Jun 2014, 02:47 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
On Tuesday night, a suicide bomber detonated a tricycle taxi packed with explosives at an outdoor World Cup viewing center in a northeast Nigerian city, Damaturu
An explosion in northeastern Nigeria struck an open-air World Cup viewing area where people had gathered to watch a television broadcast of Tuesday’s matches. The explosion took place in the state of Yobe, an area that has been under attack by Islamist militants Boko Haram.
slate.comA hospital worker said that truckloads of injured people are being treated in overcrowded wards, reports BBC
"The injured people are so numerous I cannot count them," the worker said after the blast hit Damaturu town.
An emergency has been declared in three states, amid attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants
Witnesses say the suicide bomber in a tricycle taxi detonated the explosives as people watched Brazil's match against Mexico on Tuesday evening.
theguardian.com
"The military and police trucks that brought them in have made four return trips so far ferrying them in. Every single truck was full of the injured. And all of them are young men or children," the hospital worker said.
The worker said that the injuries suffered by people caught up in the blast were "horrific" and that troops were prioritising bringing in the injured for treatment, before returning to the scene of the blast to collect bodies.
cnn.comDamaturu resident Mohammed Kurkure Yobe told the BBC that the venue where the attack took place is very popular and often crowded with people watching big events.
Open-air viewing centres - where people pay to watch live football - are popular throughout Nigeria. However, the Nigerian authorities have warned residents in some states to avoid public screenings of the World Cup, fearing militant attacks.
On Thursday, the north-eastern state of Adamawa ordered all venues planning to show live coverage of the football tournament to close, saying they had received intelligence of planned bomb attacks. The states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa have been under a state of emergency since May 2013. At least 2,000 people have died in the north-east since Boko Haram launched an insurgency in 2009.
Analysts say Islamist militant groups, including Boko Haram, have described football as un-Islamic. On 1 June at least 14 people were killed in a bomb attack on a bar in Adamawa that was screening a televised football match. No group claimed responsibility for the blast.
bustle.comIn March, many people were also killed in explosions while watching football in a video hall in Borno's Maiduguri town. On both occasions, Boko Haram were blamed for the blasts.