From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
An unspecified number of persons, including children, have been killed following an explosion that went off on Tuesday morning in the Sabon Gari area of the metropolis of Kano State.
The explosion, which went off at about 9.00 am in the morning brought down a one-story building made up of some shops submerging some victims who were trapped inside it.
It also affected an opposite building which housed a primary school at No. 1 A Aba road by Court Road, identified as Winners School, Kano, shattering the glasses of the said primary school building.
Eyewitnesses listed the dead victims to include Baba Welder, a lady who came there with a Sienna vehicle as well as at least a pupil from the primary school.
It was gathered that Mama Bishola, a Yoruba woman who sells beverages on the down floor of the ill-fated building, was eventually evacuated and rushed to the hospital.
Several witnesses said that explosion shook the foundation of several buildings on the streets and affected the neighbourhood badly.
Many panicked parents whose children attended primary school were seen running up and down for their children.
When Daily Sun visited the scene of the tragic explosion, efforts were being made to evacuate some people believed to have been trapped in the collapsed building while members of the Red Cross were spotted conveying unconscious victims to their vehicles.
A witness, who simply gave her name as Ayodele, said that when the blast occurred, she saw a flash of light that went to the sky and then disappeared.
“At first some people said that it was a tyre, then they said that it was gas and now we are hearing that it was a bomb. I don’t really know. But later as we were there, we saw small children on a bike as they were being rushed with blood to a private hospital”
Speaking on the spot of the incident, Kano State Commissioner of Police, Sumaila Shu’abu Dikko, confirmed that four persons were killed by the explosion while attributing the tragedy to a gas explosion.
Regardless, he stated that they have brought in a bulldozer to bring down the structure to enable them to establish the exact cause of the explosion.
He urged the residents of the Sabon Gari area, an area predominated by the visiting communities in the state, to remain calm and law-abiding as the investigation continues.
Meanwhile, a detachment of security personnel has been deployed to the affected area in a bid to avert any breakdown of law and order in the state.
Soldiers, alongside Anti- Bomb policemen and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps officers, were on the ground at the spot of the incident where patrol officers were going around the area.
