Boko Haram Blamed As 13 Die In Kano College Shooting, Blast

At least 13 people were killed and 34 injured on Wednesday as a
gunbattle broke out between police and suspected Boko Haram suicide
bombers in Nigeria's second city of Kano, police said.

Kano State police commissioner Adelere Shinaba said the gunmen, whom
he described as "insurgents", ran into the Federal College of
Education after exchanging fire with police outside the grounds.

"They were obviously suicide bombers. One of our officers shot at one
of the gunmen and the explosives on him went off, killing him on the
spot," he told AFP.

"Another gunman was also killed. Thirteen people were killed by the
gunmen and 34 others have been taken to hospital with injuries."

Most of the victims at the northern teacher training college were in a
lecture hall, where the two gunmen ran and opened fire on students.

One student who was having lunch nearby and asked not to be
identified, said he saw the gunmen, who were dressed in black, and
heard them shouting for all female students to lie face down.

"They were saying (in pidgin English), 'No be you say Boko Haram no
they exist' (Is it not you who say Boko Haram doesn't exist?)," he
added.

As shooting started, police opened fire and one of the gunman's
explosives detonated. The other was shot dead.

The blast shattered glass and brought down the ceiling in the room,
while pools of blood and the remains of the bomber could be seen, an
AFP reporter at the scene said.

Police recovered explosives and two Kalashnikov assault weapons, Shinaba said.

Educational establishments in Kano -- the commercial capital of the
north and a centre of Islamic scholarship dating back centuries -- have
been hit several times in recent months.

On July 30, a female suicide bomber killed six people after detonating
her explosives at a noticeboard on the campus of the Kano Polytechnic
College while students were crowded around it.

The attack was the fourth by a female bomber in the city in a week and
prompted the authorities to cancel celebrations marking the end of the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

On July 27, another female bomber blew herself up outside a university
in Kano after police prevented her from getting inside the campus.

A previous bombing on June 23 killed at least eight when it went off
in the grounds of the city's School of Hygiene.

The bombings were linked to Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgent group
opposed to so-called "Western education" that has been waging a deadly
five-year insurgency in Nigeria's Muslim-majority north.

The latest incident came a day after the Emir of Kano, Nigeria's
second-highest Muslim leader, gave his first interview since his
appointment in June and called for action against militancy.

Muhammad Sanusi II, who as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was the former
governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said more investment was
needed in the conflict-ridden north to prevent radicalisation.

"As long as people are gainfully employed, they're not likely to jump
onto the bandwagon of insurgency," he told BBC television.

Nigeria's military are under pressure to crush the insurgency after
Boko Haram seized territory in the far northeast in recent weeks,
declaring one captured town part of an Islamic caliphate.