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A series of coordinated bombings in the northern Nigerian city of Kano have left scores dead.

News reports say at least 120 people were killed Friday in attacks that targeted police stations and government buildings.

The radical Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

A 24-hour curfew is in force in the predominately Muslim city, Nigeria's second largest.

A reporter for VOA's Hausa Service says that over a period of 90 minutes, he counted more than 24 blasts in Kano. The city's emergency coordinator described conditions as chaotic following the attacks.

A spokesman for Boko Haram told reporters the bombings were in retaliation for the arrest of several sect members in Kano.

The militant group is blamed for increased attacks in Nigeria, including a Christmas Day bombing near a Catholic church on the edge of Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that left nearly 40 people dead.

Nigeria is divided between a largely Christian south and a mostly Muslim north.

Despite a state of emergency declared by the country's president, Goodluck Jonathan, the attacks across northern Nigeria and in the southern capital have continued unabated.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is sacrilegious” in Hausa, the main language of the north, says it is working to implement Islamic law across Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.