15 killed, 41 hurt in blasts near Nigerian capital: Officials

Police bomb squad personnel gather debris for analysis at the scene of a bomb blast in Nyanya, on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria, October 3, 2015. Two bombs went off on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja late on Friday, an official said, the first such incident in over a year. There was an unknown number of casualties, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency said. He had no more details on the blasts in Kuje and Nyanya. Spokesman Manzo Ezekiel said that the bomb in Kuje went off near a police station while the one in Nyanya detonated in a crowded area not far from the site of two blasts in April and May last year that killed at least 90 people. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde‚Ä®

ABUJA:15 killed, 41 hurt in blasts near Nigerian capital: Officials  Two bomb blasts that ripped through the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital Abuja have left at least 15 people dead and 41 wounded, the National Emergency Management Agency said on Saturday.

“Following a coordinated rescue operation at scene of multiple explosions in both Nyaya and Kuje, which are satellite towns of Federal Capital Territory Abuja, so far 15 persons lost their lives and 41 injured,” hospitals,” NEMA said in a statement.

“In Nyaya two dead were recorded while 21 injured. Kuje 13 lost their lives and 20 injured,” the agency said.

It said the injured had been taken to the hospitals for treatment.

The explosions occurred late on Friday near a police station in Kuje and at a bus stop in Nyanya, in an area previously targeted by the Boko Haram Islamist group.

Kuje, near Abuja’s airport, is some 40 kilometres from the city centre and seat of government. Its prison has been reported to be holding dozens of Boko Haram prisoners captured by troops.

The same bus station in Nyanya was hit twice last year.

The first attack, on April 14 2014, left at least 75 dead and was claimed by the Islamists; the second, on May 1, left at least 16 dead.

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