Jan 24, 2012

Police discovered 300 Coca-Cola size cans of improvised explosive devices at various locations in Kano

A police sweep in Nigeria's northern city of Kano has led to the recovery of more than 100 bombs since co-ordinated attacks after Friday prayers killed at least 166 people there, police said Monday.

"So far we have discovered over a 100 home-made bombs in the operation we have launched in bomb recovery in different parts of the city," said a senior police official on condition of anonymity.

He said "lots of the unexploded bombs were recovered around the police headquarters" which was one of the targets struck in the deadly Friday attacks.

Earlier Monday police said they found eight explosive-laden cars abandoned by road sides across the city of 4.5 million people.

"One of the bomb-laden cars was parked near a police station and a neighbourhood market in the densely populated Sheka area of the city," he said.

Residents said on Sunday a bomb-laden car was found abandoned outside a government-run fuel station but that the explosives were defused by police.

On Friday, bombs were set off and gun battles raged in co-ordinated attacks launched after Muslim prayers in Nigeria's second largest city, with a police headquarters and other police stations, a secret police building and immigration offices targeted.

A purported spokesman for the Boko Haram Islamist sect claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in response to a refusal by the authorities to release its members from custody.

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