Suicide car bomber kills 3 outside Nigeria church

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a packed church during Sunday service, killing three people and injuring dozens in central Nigeria's Jos city that has been the centre of a sectarian and ethnic violence.

Eyewitnesses said the bomber who drove into the building of Church of Christ during an early morning service killed a man and his child and another woman going to the church. Some witnesses claimed the bomber was dressed in an army uniform.

National Emergency Management Agency spokesman told PTI more than 38 others were wounded in the attack. He said the woman killed must have been run over by the speeding suicide bomber.

"We have taken all the wounded persons to the hospital for treatment," the spokesman man. No group has claimed responsibility but the action bears the signature of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram which has been carrying out such suicide attacks in the oil rich African country since 2006.

The group's aims to overthrow the democratic government of the country and install an Islamic state and the rule of Sharia. Meanwhile, agitated youths went on a rampage and smashed windscreens of cars.

Jos is the capital of Plateau state which has witnessed series of ethnic and sectarian fighting between Hausa-Fulani and Berom in recent times. The former are regarded as  settlers by the later and this has been a reason for constant dispute.

The dreaded Boko Haram has carried out a wave of bomb and gun attacks across the the country, including the January 20 multiple terror bomings in Kano that killed 185 people, including an Indian from Gujarat.

Nigeria, with a population of 150-million, has large number of Muslim and Christian population. Muslims predominant in the north of the country while Christians mostly live in the South.