![\"This](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/06\/05\/17\/58710801-10886889-This_photograph_was_allegedly_taken_in_St_Francis_Catholic_Churc-a-35_1654447553682.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This photograph was allegedly taken in\u00a0St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town, in Ondo State, in the aftermath of the attack<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ondo state governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu said in a statement it was a ‘vile and satanic attack’ and appealed to the security forces to track down the assailants.<\/p>\n
In a tweet, he added: ‘Our hearts are heavy. Our peace and tranquility have been attacked by the enemies of the people.’<\/p>\n
Local politician Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole, who visited the scene and also the hospital where many of the wounded were being treated, said among the dead were many children.<\/p>\n
State police spokeswoman Ibukun Odunlami said the gunmen attacked the church with explosives, leaving an undisclosed number of worshippers dead.<\/p>\n
‘It’s still premature to say exactly how many people were killed. But many worshippers lost their lives while others were injured in the attack,’ she said.<\/p>\n
Adelegbe Timileyin, who represents the Owo area in Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber, said the presiding priest was abducted as well.<\/p>\n
![\"No](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/06\/05\/17\/58710915-10886889-image-a-43_1654447791645.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNo group claimed responsibility for the attack and the motives and the death toll were not immediately clear, but President Muhammadu Buhari (above) condemned the ‘heinous killing of worshippers’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/06\/05\/17\/58711069-10886889-image-a-44_1654448050975.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA witness, who gave his name as Abayomi, said at least 20 worshippers had died in the attack.<\/p>\n
‘I was passing through the area when I heard a loud explosion and gunshots inside the church,’ he continued.<\/p>\n
He said he saw at least five gunmen on the church premises before he ran away for safety.<\/p>\n
Gun and bomb attacks are rare in Ondo state, but Nigeria’s military is battling a 12-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast, kidnapping gangs in the northwest and separatist agitation in the southeast.<\/p>\n
Nigeria’s security forces did not immediately respond to enquiries as to how the attack occurred or if there are any leads about suspects. Owo is about 215 miles east of Lagos.<\/p>\n
‘In the history of Owo, we have never experienced such an ugly incident,’ said lawmaker Oluwole. ‘This is too much.’
\nStory by Jonathan Ross<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 50 people are feared dead after gunmen opened fire on worshippers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern\u00a0Nigeria\u00a0on Sunday, officials said. The violence at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town, in Ondo State, happened during the morning service\u00a0on Pentecost Sunday in a rare attack in the southwest of the African […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4899,5304,11394,5443,3820,6609,287,6537,6083,7234,10418,5241,8854,6159,9807,6825,11111,13157,1925,9515,10454,6698,10634,5572,434,5549,4455,6992,11973,6991,5396,421,3805,1396,5655,594],"class_list":["post-23055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-african","tag-attack","tag-attacks","tag-bomb","tag-buhari","tag-catholic","tag-children","tag-church","tag-dead","tag-death","tag-death-toll","tag-died","tag-explosion","tag-fire","tag-gun","tag-hospital","tag-injured","tag-islamic","tag-kidnapping","tag-killed","tag-killing","tag-lagos","tag-lost","tag-military","tag-nigeria","tag-nigerian","tag-of-lagos","tag-ondo-state","tag-one","tag-owo-town","tag-peace","tag-police","tag-president","tag-president-muhammadu-buhari","tag-security","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}