Multiple explosions and gunfire have rocked the Nigerian city of Kano

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 Multiple explosions and gunfire have rocked the Nigerian city of Kano, with residents reporting an immigration office and several police stations targeted. At least seven dead bodies, including five immigration officers and two civilians. Authorities have not confirmed reports of casualties.

The Nigerian city of Kano is under curfew after multiple explosions and gunfire rocked the area that targeted at an immigration office and several police stations. A witness told Al Jazeera that he had seen at least seven dead bodies, including five immigration officers and two civilians. Authorities have not confirmed reports of casualties. An AFP journalist heard what sounded to be about 20 explosions coming from two neighbourhoods in the city, the largest in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north. Smoke could also been seen coming from the areas.

 Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the attack, the Associated Press reported. Ahmad Idris, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Abuja, said reports suggested at least eight police stations were targeted in addition to the zonal police headquarters. "Residents said there was sound of gunfire echoing in some parts of the city," he said. "It's a confused situation in Kano, with some residents saying prisoners are being freed from police stations." A resident near the immigration office said: "At the moment, there is a heavy shootout between the immigration personnel and the police with the attackers, and bombs explode in between."

 He said it appeared that a passport office of the immigration service was targeted in the Marhaba area.
"Everybody is running for his life. It's chaotic," he said. Earlier attacks Scores of bomb blasts in Nigeria's north have been blamed on the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of four states on December 31, hard hit by attacks blamed on Boko Haram. Kano is not included in the state of emergency, and has not been previously hit by any of recent major attacks. Most of the attacks have occurred in the country's northeast. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

Previous similar story: Christmas Carnage in Nigeria; 5 Churches Bombed 12/21/11

 A string of bombs struck churches in five Nigerian cities Sunday, leaving dozens dead and wounded on the holiday, authorities and witnesses said. The blasts mark the second holiday season that bombs have hit Christian houses of worship in the west African nation. The blasts targeted churches across the country, hitting the cities of Madalla, Jos, Kano, and Damaturu and Gadaka, said journalist Hassan John, who witnessed the carnage in Jos.

 In Damaturu, a northern town in Yobe state, a police station and a state security building were also bombed, an aid worker said. The worker asked not to be named for security reasons. Nwakpa Okorie, a spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross, said the some of the wounded were taken to the capital Abuja for treatment. "The situation is under control now. The security agents have secured the streets close to the bombed areas ... in Madalla, Jos and Dematuru," he said. The death toll in Madalla alone was 16, Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib told CNN. John said witnesses in Madalla reported a higher death toll, with more than 30 killed. Some of the victims died after being taken to a hospital.

He said local people were already blaming the violent extremist Muslim Boko Haram sect, which has targeted Christians as well as Muslims its members consider insufficiently Islamic. Two blasts targeted the Mountain of Fire Ministries church in Jos, northeast of the capital, said John. No one was killed in that bombing, which John called a "miracle" -- but a police officer who got into a gun battle with the attackers died of his wounds later, John said, citing officials.

 The second church, in Jos, was hit by two explosions when young men threw bombs, John said. Police responded quickly and exchanged gunfire with the attackers, who wounded at least one of the police officers, he said. The injured officer was rushed to the Jos University teaching hospital for medical attention, but died of his wounds, John said. There were about five attackers, one of whom carried an AK-47 rifle. They fled into the crowd and disappeared after the attack, John said. Police arrested four people and recovered four unexploded devices, Nigerian state television reported. Last year, five churches in Jos were attacked while residents were celebrating Christmas Eve. The blasts killed dozens in Jos, which lies on a faith-based fault line between the Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian south.

 Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and has the world's sixth-largest Christian population -- about 80.5 million people as of 2010, according to a report published this month by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington. That makes the country just over 50% Christian, according to the Pew figures. The latest attacks follow two days of clashes between militants and security forces in northern Nigeria. Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, the Nigerian army chief of staff, said the clashes left three soldiers dead and several more wounded. The fighting began Thursday between Boko Haram militants and the military in the Yobe state town of Damaturu, Ihejirika said.
"There was a major encounter with the Boko Haram in Damaturu," Ihejirika said Friday. "We lost three of our soldiers, seven were wounded. But we killed over 50 of their members." Boko Haram translates from the local Hausa as "Western education is outlawed." The group has morphed into an insurgency responsible for dozens of attacks in Nigeria in the last two years. Boko Haram's targets include police outposts and churches as well as places associated with "Western influence." CNN's Josh Levs, Richard Allen Greene, Esprit Smith, Karen Smith, Amir Ahmed and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.