Gunmen have killed at least six people when they opened fire on the
congregation during a prayer service at a church in Nigeria.
The assault comes just weeks after a radical Muslim sect claimed
responsibility for a series of deadly bombings at churches in northern
Nigeria.
Police said eight others were wounded in the shootings at the Deeper Life
Church in Gombe.
The oil-rich nation's president recently put regions of the country under a
state of emergency due to the threat, but that did not include Gombe.
No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion
immediately fell on the radical Muslim sect known as Boko Haram.
The sect has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its
campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multi-ethnic nation
of more than 160 million people.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local
Hausa language, is responsible for more than 500 killings this year alone,
according to an unofficial count.
The group claimed responsibility for an attack that killed at least 42 people
in a Christmas Day bombing of a Catholic church near Abuja, as well as a suicide
car bombing targeting the UN headquarters in the capital that killed 25 people
and wounded more than 100.
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