Suicide bomb attack leaves five dead in Nigerian city of Kano

A bomb blast ripped through a street of bars and restaurants in Nigeria's second biggest city on Sunday night, killing five people, including a suicide bomber, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Kano, the commercial hub of the north, but blame is likely to fall on the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, which has been holding more than 200 schoolgirls hostage since last month.

Kano police commissioner Adelere Shinaba said the bomb caused around five fatalities, including the suicide bomber and a young girl. Shinaba said it was too early to say who was responsible for the attack.

Police said the blast happened in the Sabon Gari or "foreign quarter" of Kano, an area mostly inhabited by southern Christians. Last week uniformed soldiers were visible behind sandbags at the entrance to the vibrant but run-down neighbourhood, where sights included a jumble of rusting corrugated iron roofs, bunches of cables slung between telegraph poles, men working old Singer sewing machines, rubbish piled in open sewers and wall graffiti that warned: "Don't urinate here."

The explosion happened at about 9.30pm on Sunday when the area was crowded with revellers as well as street hawkers and traders. Witness Abdul Dafar, who lives a block away, said he saw at least four dead bodies after the explosion. "I heard a loud blast," he told Reuters. "And there was a lot of smoke. Soldiers came in to cordon off the place and ambulances were rushing people to hospital."

A suicide car bomber killed 25 people at a bus station in Sabon Gari in March last year and multiple blasts killed at least 24 people there in July. But since then Kano has been relatively calm and the state governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has been praised for combating the menace by investing in education and jobs.

Local government elections were held in Kano on Saturday, with the main opposition All Progressives congress crushing the governing Peoples 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.