BREAKING NEWS: Bomb explosion rocks Kaduna; ...15 killed

A bomb tossed off the back of a motorcycle at a Nigerian Muslim cleric killed at least 15 people on a busy commercial road in the northern city of Kaduna on Wednesday, witnesses said.

The blast scattered debris and dead bodies on the Alkali Road in the city centre, but missed Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, who was conducting Muslim prayers in Murtala Muhammed square, two witnesses told Reuters.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been staging attacks, especially with explosives, outside its northeastern heartlands in the past three months.

The group has often attacked Muslim leaders and imams who criticise its hardline Salafist ideology.

Witness Yusuf Suleiman, a trader, said that he counted 15 bodies in a police van after the explosion.

Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi