The cause of the late Friday blast was not immediately clear, but Boko Haram Islamists have attacked Bauchi repeatedly during their five-year uprising aimed at creating a strict Islamic state in the north.

Bauchi state police spokesman Mohammed Haruna said the targeted building in the Bayan Gari neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city was widely known as a brothel.

“Ten people were confirmed dead, while 14 others sustained various degrees of injury,” Haruna said, adding that the explosion went off at roughly 10:00 pm (2100 GMT).

“The entire area has been cordoned off and (the) scene secured,” Haruna said. Bomb attacks on targets which Boko Haram has branded sinful – including bars, churches and schools teaching a Western curriculum – have formed a major part of the insurgency.

The News Agency of Nigeria however says 13 persons were killed and 34 injured at the Peoples Hotel on Friday night. in the Bauchi metropolis.

The police spokesman said that the bodies of the casualties had been deposited at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, while the injured were receiving treatment at the same hospital.

Military, police and Nigeria Red Cross personnel were already at the scene when NAN correspondent visited on Saturday morning.

An eye-witness, Malam Ahmed Maidoki told NAN that five persons in military uniform carried out the attack by detonating explosives and shooting at random.

” We were just sitting down, watching highlights of the ongoing FIFA world cup at the viewing centre located in between the two story building of the hotel when five men dressed in military uniform strolled in.

” We thought they were security personnel, who came to relax as well. I noticed they all positioned themselves at the four corners of the hall.

” The next thing I heard was an explosion, after which the arena was covered with thick smoke. Shivering, my friends and I sprawled on the ground.

” We were trying to get out when the five men started shooting sporadically at any one who tried to stand up, and in the process, killing many of the survivors of the blast “, he said.

Another eye-witness, Usman Hassan, said he was about to enter the hotel when the blast occurred and immediately ran away from the scene.

” As soon as I was a bit far from the scene, I heard gun-shots. Few minutes later, a white Toyota Hillux vehicle zoomed out of the hotel on high speed with men wearing army uniforms”, he said.

Nigeria has estimated that more than 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in 2009. The violence has escalated in recent months, with more than 2,000 deaths recorded since the start of the year.

June 25 bombing at a shopping centre, in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja

The capital Abuja has been hit with three separate bomb attacks since mid-April, most recently on Wednesday when 24 people were killed in a blast at a popular shopping plaza in the heart of the city.

Police had initially given a death toll of 21 for the attack, but the health ministry revised those figures upwards on Saturday.

In Kano, the largest city in the mainly Muslim north, a bomb planted in the parking lot of a public health college killed eight people on Monday.

The Islamist extremists have received unprecedented international attention in recent weeks following their April 14 abduction of more than 200 teenage girls from the town of Chibok in the northeast.

The gruesome mass abduction has drawn condemnation from governments and prominent people worldwide and offers of military help from major world powers to boost Nigeria’s counter-insurgency effort.

(NAN/AFP)