Dozens of people are dead after a suicide bomber dressed as a student attacked a school in Nigeria’s restive Yobe state.

The suicide bomber targeted students gathered for a morning assembly at the all-boys Senior Science Secondary School in the town of Potiskum, killing at least 48 people and leaving 79 injured.

Abubakar Isa, a teacher at the school, said the death toll is likely far higher.

Isa said 70 students were killed and another 70 were injured. He also said not all the students had arrived at the school when the blast occurred.

Isa said the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups are helping those affected by the bomb.

Potiskum is located in Yobe, one of three states placed under a state of emergency by the government last year due to the Boko Haram insurgency.

No claim of responsibility

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, but Boko Haram, whose name roughly means “Western education is forbidden,” has attacked schools before. Most notably, the group kidnapped more than 200 girls from a secondary school in the town of Chibok in April.

On Monday, Muhammad Sani said he was dropping off his sons at the science school when the blast occurred, creating a noise so loud it shook the ground.

Sani said he saw children injured by the blast running by, their uniforms soaked in blood.

Sani said the blast broke the arm of one of his sons. Sani said he counted 30 dead bodies, and more than 70 injured.

Students angered

Babaa Bakura, an attorney and former student at the school, said a bomb had been planted at the school in the past, but was disarmed before it could explode.

As many as 2,000 students could have been at the school at the time of the blast, Bakura said, adding that police and soldiers who arrived to help after the bombing were chased away by angry students.

“They must have been pushed out kind of by the students who were kind of bitter with the whole thing. But I think the injured and the dead have been evacuated now.”

Police are investigating the bomb blast.

Ardo Hazzad contributed to this report from Bauchi.
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