BAUCHI, Nigeria: Witnesses and officials say an explosion has struck near a church in north Nigeria.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that the blast happened Sunday morning around a car near a Living Faith Evangelical church in a neighborhood of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state.

An AP reporter saw the injured receiving treatment at a local hospital.

A spokesman for Nigeria’s Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed the explosion, but gave no details.

The blast comes as Nigeria faces a growing wave of sectarian violence carried out by a radical sect known as Boko Haram.