ABUJA, May 17 (Xinhua) – Four more people have died in the hospital following a suspected arson attack on a local mosque in Nigeria’s northern state of Kano, the police said Friday, confirming a rise in the death toll from 11 to 15.
The victims, which included at least four children, sustained varying degrees of burns and were rushed to a hospital for treatment after the incident on Wednesday morning in Gadan village of the Gezawa local government area, Usaini Gumel, the police chief in Kano, earlier told Xinhua.
The death toll rose on Friday when more injured victims died in a local hospital, Gumel told Xinhua by telephone. Nine more victims are still being treated at the hospital. A 38-year-old man identified as Shafi’u Abubakar has been arrested as the suspected arsonist, the police said, noting that the suspect allegedly used petrol to ignite the fire, which set the worshippers ablaze during dawn prayers at the mosque. The police have started an investigation into the incident, but a preliminary probe revealed the motive behind the attack was “a family conflict over inheritance sharing.”