60 feared killed Potiskum as bomb blast hit school assembly

No fewer than 60 students are believed to have died in a bomb blast that ripped through a school in northeast Nigeria on Monday, as students gathered for morning assembly before classes began.

In a bomb blast believed to have been detonated by a suicide bomber who had come in as a student, the incident happened at the Government Comprehensive Senior Science Secondary School in Potiskum, Yobe state, as students waited to hear the principal’s daily address.

 “The students had gathered for the morning assembly when something exploded in their midst with a thunderous sound at exactly 7:50 am (0650 GMT),” said one teacher, who asked not to be identified.

“The explosion has affected many students but I can’t say how many because we are now evacuating the victims to the hospital which is just 100 metres (yards) away,” the teacher added, sobbing.

A medic at the Potiskum General Hospital where the victims were taken said scores of students had been admitted.

“We are still receiving casualties from the school which is a stone’s throw from here,” the medic said.

“Our priority now is to save the injured, so we have not started a headcount of the victims.”

A local resident, Adamu Alkassim, said there was confusion in and around the school but the scene was a mass of abandoned footwear and blood.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Boko Haram militants are likely to be the prime suspects.