Nigerian officials say a car bombing near a church on Easter Sunday killed at least 20 people in the country's north.

A witness said the bomb went off in a business area near the church in the northern Nigerian town of Kaduna.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Later Sunday, a blast in the central city of Jos left several people wounded. No other details are available.

The explosions came after foreign diplomats warned of possible attacks on one of the holiest days of the Christian observances of the year.

Four bombs killed 44 people in Nigeria on Christmas Day (December 25) last year, including more than 30 at a Catholic church near the capital, Abuja.

The radical Islamic group, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for what appeared to have been coordinated attacks.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language, is fighting to turn northern Nigeria into a staunchly Islamic state.