Bomb blasts targeting football fans kill one in Nigeria

Three bomb blasts, targeting bars as fans watched a Spanish football match on television, rocked the Nigerian city of Jos officials said on Sunday, with one death and 10 injuries reported.

The bombs were said to have been planted near outdoor bars -- called "viewing centres" in Nigeria -- late on Saturday in the city as the victims watched a match between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Jos has been hit by waves of violence between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups in recent years.

"There were three blasts, all targeting soccer viewing centres," said Mark Lipdo, an official with the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian NGO.

"The bombs were detonated outside the viewing centres, which was responsible for the low casualty recorded," he added.

"One person was killed in the blast," he said, adding that the victim had been decapitated by the explosion.

Of the people wounded, four were in critical condition, including two in a coma.

Red Cross official Manata Bambe, while declining to be drawn on the death toll, confirmed that 10 people had been sent to hospital with "various degrees of injuries from the blasts."

Pam Ayuba, spokesman for the governor of Plateau state, where Jos is the capital, also reported three blasts with one person killed, though he said seven were wounded.

The explosions occurred in predominantly Christian areas of the city.

A military task force operating in the Jos area on Sunday announced a night-time ban on motorcycles. Many bombings in Nigeria have been carried out by assailants on motorcycles.

Violence in recent years in Jos and the surrounding area between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups has left thousands dead.

Plateau state lies in the middle-belt region between the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria's north has been hit by scores of attacks blamed on the Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which also claimed responsibility for the August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja which killed 24 people.

The Islamist group also claimed responsibility for a string of bomb blasts on Christmas Eve 2010 in Jos, but it was unclear whether it was involved in Saturday night's attacks.