Dozens of vehicles were set ablaze by the blast and thick black smoke billowed into the sky. Police said they suspected an Islamist sect, Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for many other attacks in the country in recent months.
A suspected suicide bomber struck a car park at a police station in Nigeria's capital on Thursday, officials said, and witnesses said they had seen several dead bodies carried from the wreckage.
Dozens of vehicles were set ablaze by the blast and thick black smoke billowed into the sky. Police said they suspected an Islamist sect, Boko Haram, which has claimed responsibility for many other attacks in the country in recent months.
"Definitely we are suspecting the Boko Haram sect," police spokesperson Olusola Amore said.
Boko Haram, which says it wants wider application of sharia (Islamic law) in Africa's most populous nation, has carried out almost daily attacks in and around the northeastern city of Maiduguri in recent months.
Its targets have been soldiers, policemen, prison warders and politicians as well as religious and traditional rulers opposed to its ideology. The sect has warned it would carry out more strikes if its demand were not met.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said a suicide bomber was killed in the blast. Witnesses said police failed in an attempt to stop a vehicle entering the car park shortly before the explosion was heard.
"A suicide bomber died in the incident and many vehicles were destroyed," a spokesperson for NEMA told Reuters. "NEMA has successfully cordoned off the motorpark site of police headquarters where the explosion occurred."
The spokesperson did not have further information about casualties.
Members of the Red Cross were picking up the remains of dead bodies from the site as fire fighters put out flames coming from dozens of vehicles hit by the blast.
"I saw the man trying to enter in his car but they (police) couldn't stop him. Everyone ran for their lives," said one witness, who did not give his name.
"We were standing here about 80 metres from the blast when we heard a deafening sound. We scattered. I saw one man was totally shattered. The injured are being taken to hospital," said Yahaya, a policeman working in the building.
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