A suicide bomb attack in a north-east Nigerian school killed at least 47 – most of them said to be students – and injured 79 others as students had gathered for a morning assembly on Monday.
The attack took place in the town of Potiskum at a boys' science and technical school in Yobe, a territory known to be a stronghold of the Boko Haram extremists with many other attacks in the area attributed to them.
"There was an explosion detonated by a suicide bomber," national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told AFP news agency, adding that the Islamist group is the prime suspect for this attack.
Mariam Ibrahim, a teacher at the Government Science Secondary School (GSS), told Reuters that the explosion took place as she arrived at the school and the students were gathered for their routine morning briefing.
A resident of Potiskum, Aliyu Abubakar, told the agency that he heard the explosion when he was dropping off his two sons at a nearby college.
"One of my sons fell down, I came out, dragged him in and we drove off back home," he said.
Another unnamed teacher was quoted as saying: "There are some (others) that are critically injured and I am sure the death toll will rise."
At least 48 bodies or body parts were brought to the morgue and 79 students were rushed to the hospital, many with serious injuries that may require amputations, according to information gathered by sources from hospital records.
According to a morgue attendant in the hospital, all victims appeared to be between 11 to 20 years of age.
"We were waiting for the principal to address us, around 7:30am, when we heard a deafening sound and i was blown off my feet. People started screaming and running, I saw blood all over my body," 17-year-old Musa Ibrahim Yahaya, who was being treated for head wounds at a hospital, told The Guardian
Boko Haram, which is likely to be the prime suspect, has not claimed responsibility for the attacks.
