Eight people died in an attack on a mosque in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria –

At least eight worshipers were killed and 16 others injured early Wednesday morning after a man attacked a mosque in northern Nigeria’s Kano state with a locally made explosive, leading to a fire outbreak, police said.

The suspect, a 38-year-old local resident, confessed that he attacked the mosque in the remote village of Gadan in Kano “out of pure hostility following a prolonged family disagreement,” police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eight of the injured later died in a hospital, Haruna told local channel Channels Television later on Thursday. Four children were among the injured worshipers, but it was not clear whether any of the children died.

The incident sparked panic in Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest state, which has seen recurring religious unrest over the years, sometimes leading to violence.

The suspect entered the mosque with “a bomb prepared on site and detonated it,” local police chief Umar Sanda told reporters. “This has nothing to do with terrorism.”

Footage broadcast by local TVC channel showed charred walls and burnt furniture at the mosque, the main place of worship in Gadan village in Muslim-dominated Kano state.

Local media also reported that believers were locked in the mosque, making it difficult for them to escape.

“Some children were running for their lives because they were covered in fire. We had to pour water to put it out,” Hussaini Adamu, a local resident, told TVC.

Police cordoned off the scene while the injured were taken to a hospital in the state capital.

“The disagreement was about the division of the inheritance, where those (the attacker) who allegedly cheated him were in the mosque at the time, and he did this to make his voice heard,” it said in the police statement.