An explosion has struck a school in northeast Nigeria, as students gathered for morning assembly before classes began, a teacher and a medic told the AFP news agency, with reports of "scores of student casualties".
The blast occured on Monday at the Government Comprehensive Senior Science Secondary School in Potiskum in Yobe state, as students waited to hear the principal's daily address.
"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 away," the teacher said.
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."
Attacks on schools by the armed group Boko Haram are common in northern Nigeria, where the fighters have control over large areas.
The group, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language, is described by the government as the biggest threat to security in the country, which is Africa's biggest economy and leading oil producer.
The latest violence came days after a suicide bomber killed at least seven people outside a commercial bank in the northeast town of Azare on Friday.
The blast occurred at an ATM point of a branch of the First Bank in Bauchi state, an area that has suffered previous attacks by Boko Haram who appear to be ignoring a ceasefire deal announced by the government last month.
Source: aljazeera.com
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