At Least 19 People Killed in Improvised Explosive Device Blast in Nigeria – Reports

MOSCOW, August 1 (Sputnik) – At least 19 people have been killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, the Daily Post Nigeria newspaper reported on Thursday, citing a local government official.

The IED reportedly exploded at 8:05 p.m. local time (19:05 GMT) on Wednesday at a local tea house. The exact circumstances of the incident are unknown, but authorities suspect that the explosive device could have been planted by militants from the Boko Haram terrorist group.

“We saw corpses of 19 people with an unspecified number of civilians injured. The injured were evacuated to an undisclosed hospital in Maiduguri [city] for treatment,” the official was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Dozens of people were injured in the blast, the official said.