Several people were reported wounded in the central Nigerian town of Sulega when a bomb exploded outside a church.

A police spokesman said the explosion came from a parked car. He described it as minor and said an investigation is underway.

Sulega is located on the edge of the nation's capital, Abuja.

Suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram Islamist militants who have staged dozens of attacks across northern Nigeria over the past year. Several hundred people have died in those attacks.

The sect is seeking to establish strict Sharia law in the northern part of Nigeria. The country is roughly divided between the largely Muslim north and the mostly Christian south.