Mosque attack in northern Nigeria leaves 8 people dead. Police say the motive was a family dispute

Muslim faithful pray during a traditional Friday prayers outside a small Mosque in Kano Nigeria, Friday, July. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

ABUJA, Nigeria — At least eight worshippers were killed and 16 others injured early Wednesday morning after a man attacked a mosque with a locally made explosive in northern Nigeria's Kano state, resulting in a fire outbreak, the police said.

The suspect, a 38-year-old local resident, confessed that he attacked the mosque in Kano's remote Gadan village "purely in hostility following (a) prolonged family disagreement," police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eight of those injured died later in a hospital, Haruna later told local Channels Television on Thursday. Four children were among the injured worshippers, although it was not clear if any of the children died.

The incident caused panic in Kano, northern Nigeria's largest state, where periodic religion-related unrest has occurred over the years, sometimes resulting in violence.

The suspect invaded the mosque with "a locally prepared bomb and exploded it," local police chief Umar Sanda told reporters. "It has nothing to do with terrorism."

Footage broadcast by the local TVC station showed charred walls and burned furniture in the mosque, the main place of worship for Gadan village in Muslim-dominated Kano state.

Local media also reported the worshippers were locked inside the mosque, making it difficult for them to escape.

"Some children ran for their lives with fire all over them. We had to put water to quench it," Hussaini Adamu, a resident, told TVC.

The police cordoned off the scene while the injured were rushed to a hospital in the state capital.

"The disagreement (was) over sharing of inheritance of which those that (the attacker) alleged to have cheated on him were in the mosque at that moment and he did that for his voice to be heard," the police statement said.