MAIDUGURI: Nigeria police said Thursday that they suspected a suicide bomber was behind the blast that killed several worshippers in a mosque on Christmas eve in the country’s northeastern Borno state. A police spokesman put the death toll at five, with 35 wounded. A witness on Wednesday told AFP that eight people were killed. The bomb went off inside the crowded Al-Adum Juma’at Mosque at Gamboru market in the capital city of Maiduguri, as Muslim faithful gathered for evening prayers around 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), according to witnesses and the police.

Eyewitnesses say the blast happened as people were gathered for evening prayers.

An explosion tore through a mosque in northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, during evening prayers and killed seven worshippers...