Abuja attack: Car bomb hits Nigeria UN building
The BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi says all of the glass at the front of the building has been blown out
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At least 18 people have been killed in an apparent suicide car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
The powerful blast destroyed the lower floors of the building. Dozens have been injured, some critically.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the attack was "an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others".
A UN official told the BBC the UN had had intelligence that it could be targeted by Islamist group Boko Haram.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in Nigeria, said the information was received last month.
The official said security had been stepped up at all UN offices in Nigeria in response.
A car bombing at police headquarters in June was blamed on Boko Haram, a group which wants the establishment of Sharia law in Nigeria.
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Analysis
Mark DoyleBBC News
Radical groups have targeted the Nigerian government many times before but this is the first attack on this scale against an international institution in Nigeria.
So far no-one has claimed responsibility for the blast. Nigeria is plagued with political rifts - some associated with the broad North-South Muslim-Christian divide.
A radical Islamic group known as Boko Haram - which roughly translated means "Western education is bad" - has attacked government buildings before.
But there are other disgruntled local groups including activists from the polluted oil-producing areas in the south-west. Any finger-pointing at this stage would be speculation.
No group has said it carried out Friday's attack, but government officials have blamed "terrorists" for the bombing, says the BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi, who is at the site of the explosion.
Analysts say that the scale and target of the attack could point to a link with international terror groups.
But investigators are yet to examine the evidence and a UN spokesman reiterated that it was not clear who was responsible.
'Shock on faces'
Police have sealed off the area and our correspondent there says that although rescue work is ongoing, the major search operation has been completed.
Cranes have been brought to the blast site to move the mass of rubble and ensure that no-one is trapped there.
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“Start Quote
This is not an attack on Nigeria but on the global community”
Viola OnwuliriMinister of State for Foreign Affairs
Witnesses said the blast happened when a car rammed the front of the building after crashing through two security barriers.
"We condemn this terrible act utterly," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference.
He said he was sending two deputies - Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro and UN security chief Gregory Starr - immediately to meet officials in Nigeria.
He sent his "deepest sympathies to the victims and their families" and said the UN would do all it could to help them.
Nigeria's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Viola Onwuliri told the BBC she had visited the building and seen "the shock on people's faces".
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Witness to the blast, named as Raphael: "I was just thinking of how these people could be helped"
"This is not an attack on Nigeria but on the global community," she said. "An attack on the world."
Later, President Goodluck Jonathan reaffirmed his government's "total commitment" to combating terrorism, and said his administration would "spare no effort to bring the perpetrators to justice".
The building is the UN's main office in Nigeria, where 26 humanitarian and development agencies are based.
It is said to be the headquarters for about 400 UN employees but it is not clear how many were inside the building at the time of the attack.
Earlier this month the most senior American general working on Africa, Gen Carter Ham, said many sources indicated ties between Boko Haram and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, which operates in North Africa, as well as the al-Shabab movement in Somalia, says the BBC's Africa analyst Martin Plaut.
These ties, if correct, would have provided Boko Haram with the expertise it needed to carry out these deadly attacks, he says.
'Scattered bodies'
Friday's attack took place at about 1100 local time (1000 GMT) in the diplomatic zone in the centre of the city, close to the US embassy.
There has been no claim of responsibility so far
There was a loud explosion and smoke billowed from the building following the powerful blast, which shattered all the glass in the building and demolished part of the concrete wall.
Our correspondent said the ground floor of the building was badly damaged and he saw the emergency services removing dead bodies from the building while a number of wounded were rushed to hospital.
"When the car got inside it went straight to the basement and exploded, killing people in reception, right and left," Abuja resident James John, who witnessed the attack, told Reuters.
"I saw scattered bodies," Michael Ofilaje, a Unicef worker at the building, said according to the Associated Press news agency (AP). "Many people are dead."
Local hospitals are said to be overwhelmed with the number of injured and have appealed for blood donations.
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