At least 29 people are feared dead and many others injured as multiple blasts rocked the Sabon Gari area of Kano State on Monday night.
The Sabon Gari area, where four blasts were reported, is replete with outdoor bars and eateries and known for its bustling nightlife.
According to reports, the first blast occurred at about 9:12 pm atEnugu/Igbo road near International Hotel, while the second blast followed three minutes later, at exactly 9:15 pm.
The spokesman of the Joint Task Force, Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the Kano multiple blasts and asked residents to remain calm while assuring that heavily armed security operatives had cordoned off the area.
“We have had some explosions in Sabon Gari this evening. The explosions happened at open air beer parlours, where people were playing snooker,” Kano State police commissioner, Musa Daura, told AFP.
He said that six persons were confirmed dead and six others injured in the blasts but added that the cause of the explosions remain undetermined.
Other residents said that a small church sandwiched between two bars had been among the targets.
The blame for is blasts likely to fall on Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgency group which says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
The group, which has carried out waves of bombings across northern Nigeria, was responsible for coordinated suicide blasts at a bus park in Sabon Gari in March that killed at least 41 people.
Kano has been among the cities hardest hit during the Boko Haram’sinsurgency, even if in recent months it had seen a lull in attacks.
Following a massive coordinated gun and bomb assault in January of 2012 that killed at least 185 people, security forces blanketed the city, setting up checkpoints at many roundabouts and intersections.
Nigeria launched a massive offensive against Boko Haram in May, specifically targeting three states – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
Since then, the military Joint Task Force, JTF, has succeeded in clamping down and rooting out the insurgents, thus easing the siege on major cities in the affected states.
The insurgency is estimated to have killed more than 3,600 people since 2009, including those allegedly carried out by the security forces.