A bomb at a local government building on the outskirts of Zaria in northern Nigeria killed at least 25 people on Tuesday morning and then three gunmen opened fire on a crowd of civil servants there, state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, said on his Twitter feed. Zinari Shehu, a local radio journalist who was at the scene, said the bomb went off at around 10 am (0900 GMT) in Zaria's suburb of Gogarawa, where people were gathered to greet a newly appointed head administrator.
"Three gunmen dressed in black opened fire at the scene inside the secretariat, that was when I ran out," Ibrahim Mohammed, a local government worker, told Reuters. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but it had hallmarks of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has stepped up attacks over the last ten days.