20120312
AFP
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Catholic church in the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, seriously injuring three people attending mass, the emergency services said.

The man drove his car towards St Finbar's Catholic church in the city before setting off a large explosion, killing himself and wounding three churchgoers, emergency agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib told AFP.

"The bomber drove his car towards St. Finbar's Catholic church at Rayfield. The bomb exploded before he could get to the church," he said.

"The blast killed the bomber and injured three other people who are lying unconscious on the ground," he said, adding that emergency officials were assisting the victims.

Central Nigeria, which divides the predominantly Muslim north from the mostly Christian south, has been struck by a series of deadly gun and bomb attacks blamed on the Islamist Boko Haram sect.