Bombs caused blast, police say

Explosions on Sunday which killed at least 40 people in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, were caused by bombs, according to the police. Police bomb experts have recovered bomb shells and live explosives from the site of the blast, which levelled two buildings and tore through others in the central business district of Lagos. "It was a series of explosions that brought down these buildings," Henry Idiode of the police bomb squad told reporters on Wednesday. He added that the explosives were of a type which, as far as he was aware, was not manufactured anywhere in Nigeria. Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu said investigations would be intensified to find out if it the disaster was "a crime, a robbery or politically motivated". "Whether it is deliberate or there is an underground market for explosives, these are questions for the police to answer," he said. The Lagos State government has provided temporary shelter for hundreds of people displaced by the disaster. The authorities have also asked residents of other buildings shaken by the explosions to move so as to allow engineers to assess the safety of the structures.