A bomb attack on Nigeria’s police headquarters killed two people including a policeman yesterday, officials said, in what is believed to be the first suicide bombing by Islamist extremists in Africa’s most populous nation.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

But police blamed Nigerian Islamists who a day earlier had threatened to step up a campaign of violence that has already seen scores of deadly attacks.

The bomb tore through a car park at the police compound in the capital Abuja, throwing people to the ground and destroying nearly three dozen vehicles, witnesses and officials said. Police said the bomber drove into the car park and set off the bomb when police were about to search his car.

“The police force headquarters has been bombed,” deputy national police spokesman Yemi Ajayi said.

The headquarters is less than a kilometre from the presidential offices and residence.

National police spokesman Olusola Amore later said that it was a suicide attack believed to have been carried out by a radical Islamist sect.

“Definitely we are suspecting a group that goes by the name Boko Haram who have been issuing threats upon threats for which the police are rising up to that challenge,” he said.

If confirmed, this would be the first such bombing in Nigeria as the country of 150 million people faces a growing threat from Islamic militants, security experts said.

Expert Peter Sharwood-Smith, a country manager for Cussac Nigeria said that prior to the attack, “There has never been an intentional suicide attack in Nigeria”.