Witnesses: Blast at Lagos Bank Kills More Than 20
Updated 8:19 AM ET February 2, 2003


LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - An explosion ripped open the front of a
four-story bank in central Lagos Sunday morning, killing at least 20
people, witnesses and rescue workers said.

Television reports said 50 bodies had been recovered from the scene of
the blast. Officials were not available for comment.

Local television said a bomb caused the blast, which resounded across
Lagos at around 1000 GMT, ripping off the front of the Prudent Bank
building.

Local civilians and rescue services combed through the wreckage in
search of dead and injured.

A crowd of residents thronged the scene, but scattered when
heavily-armed police arrived, shooting in the air and shouting through a
loudspeaker: "Let us through to help our brothers!"

Tension at the scene was high. Some eyewitnesses said locals were
searching for money in the wreckage.

"One of them found a large sum of money. He picked up the bundle and
wanted to throw it into the crowd. The other people started throwing
stones at him," an eyewitness said.

Waves of panic seized the crowds in the narrow streets around the scene
of the blast, near the central mosque.

The incident was the worst disaster in Nigeria since a fire gutted one
of the main offices of Nigeria's national oil firm in December. In
January last year a fire at a Lagos arms depot caused more than 1,000
deaths.

Oil-rich Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, suffers bouts of
inter-ethnic violence but is not known as a target of "terrorist"
attacks.

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