Christmas Blast Kills 19 At Nigeria Church

December 25, 2011 by staff

Christmas Blast Kills 19 At Nigeria Church, A powerful blast hit a Catholic church on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja during a Christmas service on Sunday killing many people, residents said, and one counted 19 bodies from the explosion. Emergency services said 10 bodies had been recovered from the scene so far, and earlier said there were not enough ambulances available to evacuate all the dead and the wounded.

Witnesses said St Theresa’s Church in Madala, an Abuja satellite town about 40 km from the city centre, was packed out and that there were many dead from the blast, which also blew out windows of neighboring houses.

A powerful blast hit a Catholic church on the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja during a Christmas service.
“In these three vehicles, there are 15 bodies,” a Federal Road Safety official in a reflective jacket told Reuters on the scene outside a police cordon, gesturing at three ambulances.

Hours later, another blast went off at the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in the central, ethnically and religiously mixed town of Jos, witnesses and police said.

A Reuters cameraman on the scene said he saw one lightly wounded policeman from that explosion, but there were no reports of other casualties.

“I heard the blast. My house shook,” resident Tony Akpan said of the Madala Catholic church bomb.

“I came out to the front of the church to see what was happening. I counted 19 bodies myself, many of them mutilated, and five destroyed vehicles.”

Another witness, Timothy Onyekwere, said: “We were in the church with my family when we heard the explosion. I just ran out. Now I don’t even know where my children or my wife are. I don’t know how many were killed but there were many dead.”