Death Toll in Nigeria Emir Attack Rises to Five

The death toll in a gun attack on the convoy of Emir of Kano, an influential Nigerian Muslim figure, has risen to five, the police said, as the monarch and his injured sons flew out of the country on Sunday.

"The interim chairman of Kura local government and his driver were also killed by some gunmen who pursued them from the scene of the attack" on Emir Ado Bayero, Kano police spokesman Magaji Majia told Agence France Presse.

Kano State Governor Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso had earlier told AFP that three people in the emir's convoy were were killed in the Saturday attack.

The unknown gunmen opened fire on the dignitary as he was returning from a Koranic graduation ceremony in Kano city.

The politician, Salisu Abdullahi Kura, and his driver had left the convoy in the confusion that followed the attack but were trailed by the gunmen in a cab and shot dead in a nearby street, Majia said.

The 82-year-old Bayero, who was not hurt in the attack, flew out of the country to the United Kingdom on Sunday along with his two sons injured in the attack, an official in his palace said.

"The emir left for London around 1:15 pm (12.15 GMT) to cool off after the traumatizing event of yesterday," said the official.

Security was tightened Sunday in Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria and its commercial hub.

Armed soldiers and policemen patrolled the streets and intensified their search on vehicles at checkpoints in the city.

Kano state deputy governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said some suspects have been arrested over the attack but he declined to say how many.

But a security source said on condition of anonymity that four suspected members of Boko Haram Islamist sect have been arrested, claiming that one of them had allegedly confessed participating in the attack on the emir's convoy.

The attack came on the eve of the first anniversary of the deadliest attack ever by Boko Haram in Kano, in which at least 185 people were killed.

It is also the third such attack by gunmen on Muslim figures in northern Nigeria since last July.

Violence linked to Boko Haram's insurgency has left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including people killed during operations by the security forces.