22 Jan 2012

Kano death toll still rising

2:01 pm on 22 January 2012

The death toll in Nigeria from a series of co-ordinated bombings in the northern city of Kano late on Friday is now more than 160.

The BBC reports there were dozens of bodies in the streets and hospital records showed 120 corpses had been admitted.

Hospitals are struggling to deal with the numbers of killed and wounded.

A BBC reporter in Kano earlier said he had counted 150 bodies in the mortuary of the city's main hospital.

Police stations and official buildings were targeted in several bombings. The Boko Haram group said it carried out the attacks.

Some unconfirmed reports say suicide bombers carried out some of the attacks.

A 24 hour curfew is in place in Kano.

Police said in a statement that four police stations around the city, the headquarters of the State Security Service, as well as passport and immigration offices had been targeted.

A shooting was also reported at the headquarters of the state police in the city's eastern district of Bompai.

Boko Haram, loosely translates from the Hausa language as ''Western education is forbidden''.

The group formed in 2002 and wants Islamic law established across Nigeria.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for bombing a Catholic church just outside the capital, Abuja, on Christmas Day, in which 37 people were killed and 57 wounded.