Officials in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, say a bombing at a newspaper office has killed three people, while another blast hit a market near the same publication's office in the northern city of Kaduna.

Officials say the first explosion Thursday went off at the Abuja office of This Day, one of Nigeria's most prominent papers. A resident of the neighborhood told VOA the explosion shook his house at around 11 o'clock in the morning local time.

Smoke rose from the area of the blast as police and emergency workers rushed to the scene.

Meanwhile, a VOA reporter in Kaduna says police have a man in custody after a car bomb exploded in the central market there just before noon local time. There are reports of at least 3 dead and several injured from that blast.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions.

For two years, authorities have struggled to stop a wave of bombings and shootings in the north, most of them blamed on the radical Islamic sect Boko Haram.