Blast rocks Nigeria's Yola police headquarters, casualties unknown

An explosion hit a police station in Nigeria’s north-eastern town of Yola on Thursday but an official who had responded to the emergency could not determine yet the number of casualties from the blast.

“I am near the primary school overlooking the burning police station. No casualties have been evacuated because there is no access for the moment,” said Maikano Aliyu, an official from the Nigerian Red Cross.

“The building where the blast occured had been massively destroyed and had caught fire,” Aliyu added.

According to the Red Cross official, an “explosive device” was the cause of the explosion, which occurred in the Jimeta neighborhood around 11:30 am local time.

A bomb blast has just been reported in Jemaita Yola, Adamawa state.Our officers are on their way to the scene.. Details later

— NEMA Nigeria (@nemanigeria) February 25, 2016

FLASH | Many killed as bomb blast rocks central Market of Yola, the Adamawa State capital

— SIGNAL (@thesignalng) February 25, 2016

Yola is the capital of Adamawa, one of the three states in the northeast of Nigeria most affected by the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency that has left more than 17,000 dead over the last six years.

In November, a bomb exploded in a crowd killing at least 32 people in the town while a month earlier, a bomb in a mosque killed at least 27 people.

Thursday’s attack has not been claimed yet by any group but Boko Haram has often taken to targeting police installations in the past.