Suicide Bomber Kills 47 Boys In Nigeria School Massacre

Nearly 50 pupils were killed on Monday in a suicide bombing in northeast Nigeria blamed on Boko Haram -- one of the deadliest attacks against schools teaching a so-called Western curriculum.

The explosion at the all-boys school in Potiskum is the latest in a series of atrocities against schoolchildren in the state of Yobe, and the second suicide attack in the town in eight days.

The massacre came just a day after the release of a new Boko Haram video in which the group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, again rejected Nigerian government claims of a ceasefire and peace talks.

An explosion ripped through a school in Potiskum as students gathered for morning assembly before classes began, a teacher and a medic told AFP

Students at the Government Comprehensive Senior Science Secondary School in Potiskum were waiting to hear the principal's daily address when the explosion happened at 7:50 am (0650 GMT).

"There was an explosion detonated by a suicide bomber. We have 47 dead and 79 injured," national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said, adding that Boko Haram was believed responsible.

- Scene of chaos -

A teacher at the school, who asked not be identified, called the blast "thunderous", while a local described the horror of the aftermath.

Adamu Alkassim said the scene was a mass of abandoned footwear, blood and flesh, as the victims were taken to the Potiskum General Hospital, just 100 metres away.

One rescue worker involved in evacuating the students from the school said the wounded had "various degrees of injuries".

The victims are thought to be in their teens.

Boko Haram, which wants to create a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has previously carried out deadly attacks on schools teaching a so-called Western curriculum since 2009.

In February, gunmen killed at least 40 students after throwing explosives into the dormitory of a government boarding school in Buni Yadi, also in Yobe state.

In July last year 42 students were killed when Boko Haram stormed dormitories in a gun and bomb attack on a government boarding school in the village of Mamudo, near Potiskum.

Boko Haram's most high-profile attack on a school came in April, when fighters kidnapped 276 girls from the town of Chibok in Borno state, also in northeast Nigeria.

More than six months later, 219 of the girls are still being held.