Abuja, July 23: Seven people were killed and seven others injured following a suicide attack in a mosque in Nigeria's Borno state on Monday, officials said. The injured have been evacuated to a hospital in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, Xinhua quoted Bello Dambatta, head of rescue operations at the State Emergency Management Agency, as saying.

The remains of the male suicide attacker, who caused the havoc, were among those evacuated from the scene.  The attacker entered the mosque during the morning prayer, pretending to be a worshipper, before detonating the improvised explosive device strapped to his back, said Dambatta.

"It is not clear how the suicide bomber infiltrated the town and attacked the mosque," said Ali Kolo, head of a local vigilante group in Konduga.  He said the building collapsed during the explosion and the victims were evacuated from the rubble.

Yunusa Bello, a resident who witnessed the blast, said all the victims were worshippers at the mosque. Bello said he saw bodies of seven of the victims who died inside the mosque while two bodies were found at the entrance of the building.

"One died on the way to the hospital and one other died at the hospital," he said after assisting victims to the hospital in his van. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast but locals suspect the Nigeria-based armed group Boko Haram was to blame.

Despite the efforts by the government and the armed forces to destabilize the group, Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets recently, mostly in the northeast region of the country.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2018 09:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).