Fear gripped Nigeria yesterday after a wave of Christmas bombings blamed on Islamists killed at least 40, including worshippers who were left begging for mercy as they exited a church.

I have never cried before. Yesterday I cried. This morning I cried...

Hundreds of residents sought to flee the violence-torn city of Damaturu yesterday fearing further attacks and clashes between Islamists and police, while some 30 Christian shops were burnt in the nearby city of Potiskum late on Sunday.

At the damaged Saint Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla near the capital Abuja where the bloodiest attack took place, a special Mass was held in memory of the 35 victims there despite splattered blood still visible on the outside.

“I have never cried before,” Father Isaac Achi told the audience of several hundred which included bishops and priests from the region as well as the Vatican’s representative to Nigeria. “Yesterday I cried. This morning I cried. But with all of you around today, I will not cry again. Seeing you coming to say this Mass, I’m telling you, I will not cry again.”

The blast struck as the service was ending and worshippers were filing out.

Some of the wounded, including one man with a horrific stomach wound, ran towards a priest for final blessings. Some were burnt in their cars.

Nigeria has seen scores of attacks claimed by Islamist group Boko Haram, but some analysts said the bombings marked a dangerous escalation in a country divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

The government in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, blamed Islamist sect Boko Haram for three attacks on Sunday.

In the central city of Jos, a church was targeted and a policeman was killed in a resulting shootout.

A suicide blast also occurred in the restive northeastern city of Damaturu when the bomber sought to ram into a military convoy in front of a secret police office, killing himself and three security agents.

A third church was targeted in the northeast on Christmas Eve, but no one was reported killed. Residents reported another explosion near a church in the northeastern city of Maiduguri late on Sunday, but an army spokesman denied it.