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DAMATURU, Nigeria (AP) — Police in Nigeria say the explosion that killed at least 14 people at an illegal World Cup viewing site was the result of a car bomb.
More than two dozen other people were injured in the blast as soccer fans were watching the Brazil-Mexico match.
Police say the viewing sites were banned in the area where the explosion took place, because they have become a target of the armed Islamic group Boko Haram (BOH'-koh hah-RAHM'). Security experts have warned that Islamic militants might attack crowds watching the World Cup in public places in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, as they did in 2010 in Uganda.
Witnesses had said a suicide bomber drove a tricycle taxi packed with explosives into the area. But police say the bomb was in a car that was parked and abandoned on the road in front.
Meanwhile, security forces have arrested a man described as a "terror kingpin." He was among nearly 500 people detained as suspected terrorists in southeastern Nigeria.
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APPHOTO LON107: Bloodstains seen on the street and damage buildings following a suicide bomb explosion at a World cup viewing centre in Damaturu, Nigeria, Wednesday, June 18, 2014. Police say 14 people were known to have died in the bombing of an outdoor World Cup viewing center in a northeast Nigerian city. The suicide bomber detonated a tricycle taxi packed with explosives Tuesday night. Police Assistant Superintendent Nathan Cheghan said Wednesday that 14 people were killed and 26 were wounded in the attack in Damaturu, capital of Yobe state. There was no immediate claim for the blast but Boko Haram was suspected. Boko Haram wants to enforce an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer with a population almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims. (AP Photo/Adamu Adamu) (18 Jun 2014)
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APPHOTO LON108: Victims of a suicide bomb explosion at a World Cup viewing center receive treatment at Sani Abacha specialist hospital in Damaturu, Nigeria, Wednesday, June 18, 2014. An explosion at an illegal World Cup viewing site in Damaturu northeast Nigeria killed at least 14 people while security forces arrested a "terror kingpin" among nearly 500 people detained as suspected terrorists in the southeast of the country, in another signal that Nigeria's Islamic uprising is spreading. Police said at least 26 people were wounded in Tuesday night's blast as soccer fans were viewing the Brazil-Mexico match in Damaturu, capital of Yobe state. (AP Photo/Adamu Adamu) (18 Jun 2014)
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