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25.04.2012 Nigeria

Nigerian blast injures nine after football match

By AFP
Explosives were planted in the Tudun Wada area of Jos, police said.  By  AFPGraphicsExplosives were planted in the Tudun Wada area of Jos, police said. By (AFP/Graphics)
25.04.2012 LISTEN

JOS (AFP) - A blast rocked a soccer viewing centre in restive central Nigerian city of Jos, injuring at least nine people who watched the semi-final match between Chelsea and Barcelona, police said Wednesday.

"So far we have nine people injured in the stampede that followed the blast outside the soccer viewing centre," Plateau State police spokesman Samuel Dabai told AFP.

He said the explosives were planted across the road from the viewing centre in Tudun Wada area of the volatile city and went off when people were filing out after watching the match.

"No death was recorded," he said.

A military spokesman earlier said three people were hurt in the explosion, the latest to hit the Jos and its environs in recent months.

Thousands of people have been killed in deadly cycles of sectarian clashes between Muslim and Christian ethnic groups in the town in recent years.

Jos lies in the so-called middle belt region dividing the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south of Africa's most populous nation.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast, pubs, viewing centres, churches and public places have become regular targets of attacks by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

Violence by the sect, mainly in the predominantly Muslim north, has killed more than 1,000 people since mid-2009.

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