A number of Nigerian Shia Muslims on a religious procession have been shot during clashes with police in the northern city of Kano, reports say.
At least 10 pilgrims have been killed, the AFP news agency reported. Earlier a Shia group said one of its followers had been killed.
A journalist travelling with the procession told the BBC that many marchers had been shot.
Police confirmed that an incident took place but have not provided details.
But an unnamed police officer told AFP that officers had opened fire after they were met with violence from pilgrims.
Officers have blocked the road leading to Zaria in neighbouring Kaduna state, the destination for the seven-day march, local media reported.
“I saw 15 bodies sprawled on the ground before the police evacuated them,” grocer Ilyasu Ammani told AFP.
The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), the country’s biggest Shia organisation, has its headquarters in Zaria.
Nigeria’s growing Shia community has suffered a series of attacks by the security forces and Sunni militants.
In August, a judicial review said Nigerian troops should be prosecuted for the killing of 349 Shia Muslims in Zaria last December.
The IMN’s leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky was shot and then detained during the crackdown and remains in custody.
Meanwhile, last year’s Shia procession from Kano to Zaria saw more than 20 people killed in an attack by a suicide bomber from the Boko Haram Sunni Islamist militant group.
Security forces were ordered to stay away from last year’s procession following deadly clashes in previous years.
