Nigeria churches hit by blasts during prayers

Bomb blasts targeting Christmas Day church services in two Nigerian cities have left at least 28 people dead, with three more attacks on other towns. The Islamist group Boko Haram said it had attacked St Theresa's Church in Madalla, near the capital Abuja, killing 27 people. A second explosion shortly after hit a church in the central city of Jos. A policeman died during gunfire. Three attacks in northern Yobe state targeted a church and security forces. Two hit the town of Damaturu, and a third struck Gadaka. Yobe state has been the epicentre of violence between security forces and Boko Haram militants. 'Everyone was crying' Local observers say it is beginning to look like a co-ordinated offensive by Islamic militants. Boko Haram - whose name means "Western education is forbidden" - often targets security forces and state institutions. The group carried out an August 2011 suicide attack on the UN headquarters in Abuja, in which more than 20 people were killed. Nearly 70 people have died this week in fighting between Nigerian forces and Boko Haram gunmen in the country's north-east. National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) spokesman Yushau Shuaibu told the BBC that the latest Abuja explosion had happened in the street outside the church. He said the church - which can hold up to 1,000 people - had been badly affected by the blast, and the number of dead was likely to rise. Witnesses said windows of nearby houses had been shattered by the explosion. Unconfirmed reports say that emergency responders have been attacked by groups of stone-throwing youths. Officials at the local hospital said the condition of many of the injured was serious, and they were seeking help from bigger medical facilities. Businessman Munir Nasidi was in a hotel opposite the church when the blast occurred. He told the BBC: "When I came out of the hotel, people were running around. Everyone was crying. They were bringing out casualties. Nobody was getting near the building as there was a fire." In Jos, a blast close to the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church was followed by gunfire that left one officer dead, government spokesman Pam Ayuba told Associated Press. Two explosive devices found in a nearby building were disarmed as military were deployed to the site. BBC Africa editor Martin Plaut says the attack in Jos, in Plateau state, could have even more serious consequences than the attack in Abuja. The state lies in Nigeria's so-called Middle Belt, between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south. More than 1,000 have been killed in religious and ethnic violence in Jos over the past two years and our correspondent says there will be fears that the latest attack could spark wider conflict. A string of bomb blasts in Jos on Christmas Eve 2010 were claimed by Boko Haram. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi condemned the latest attacks as blind, absurd "terrorist violence" that enflames hate. "We are close to the suffering of the Nigerian Church and the entire Nigerian people so tried by terrorist violence, even in these days that should be of joy and peace," Lombardi was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.