Nigeria's Kano rocked by multiple explosions

Police stations and the regional police HQ were among the targets. Gunfire was also heard in several locations.

The militant Islamist group Boko Haram says it carried out the attacks.

The group has been behind a recent campaign of violence in the mainly Muslim north.

Meanwhile, organisers of a controversial civil activists' mass rally set for Saturday in the commercial capital Lagos called off the event in light of the attacks.

'Smoke and panic'

In a statement on Friday, police said that "seven casualties have been confirmed from different locations of the attacks" in Nigeria's second biggest city.

The statement said that four police stations around the city, the headquarters of the State Security Service, as well as passport and immigration offices were targeted.

A doctor at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital earlier told the BBC that at least five dead bodies had been brought in.

The BBC's Yusuf Ibrahim Yakasai in Kano says there was panic in the city as plumes of smoke rose into the sky.

Another doctor told the BBC that some of the wounded included foreigners from an area near the SSS headquarters, where many expatriates - particularly Lebanese and Indians - live.

There was also been a shoot-out at the headquarters of the state police in the city's eastern district of Bompai, reports said.

A witness told the BBC's Hausa Service he was with a group of Christians and Muslims who took refuge in a mosque near the gun battle.

The man - a visitor to the city - said they lay on the floor, praying together and turned off the lights. He said his hearing was still affected by the blasts; Kazinform cites BBC.

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