by Our Foreign Desk

SUSPECTED Boko Haram militants attacked a business academy in north-east Nigeria yesterday with bombs and gunfire, wounding five people.

The attack in Potiskum, the biggest city in Yobe state, began at about 8am.

Gunmen opened fire on the gates of the College of Administrative and Business Studies, chasing away security guards armed only with truncheons. Police and soldiers then rushed to the scene.

Two blasts shook the school, one caused by a suicide bomber who detonated his explosives prematurely in the car park.

The second bomb exploded in the college dormitory, but all the students were apparently already in classrooms.

Five students were wounded by gunfire but another 45 needed treatment for injuries caused by jumping out of windows and over walls to escape.

These included three students from the nearby Government Science Secondary School, who also thought they were under attack. At least 40 students were killed when Boko Haram attacked that school last year.

Yesterday’s attack was the first on a school since the start of an offensive by multinational forces against the extremist group three months ago.

The Nigerian government says the bulk of Boko Haram’s forces have retreated into the great Sambisa forest in the north-east of the country, where some 700 women and girls kidnapped by the group were rescued by soldiers earlier this month.

The name Boko Haram means “Western education is sinful.”