New Delhi, Dec. 26 -- A bomb exploded during prayers at a mosque in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday night, killing five people in what police described as a likely suicide attack.

Police said that 35 people were also injured in the attack.

Nahum Daso, spokesperson for police command in the surrounding state of Borno, said in a statement that fragments of a suspected suicide vest were found at the site.

The bombing is the latest in a series of attacks in Nigeria's troubled northern region, where the country is battling multiple armed groups, including Boko Haram and its splinter group, Islamic State West Africa Province.

Several thousand people have been killed, with millions displaced from their homes since 2009,...