Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president, narrowly avoided a deadly car bomb at a re-election campaign rally in the city of Gombe on Monday.

A car bomb exploded in a car park 200 yards outside a stadium just three minutes after Nigeria’s president left, witnesses said, killing at least one bystander and wounding seven.

One witness who was at the rally in the northeastern city, said the explosion happened at 3.10pm  just three minutes after Mr Jonathan’s departure.

A local reporter who asked not to be named said: “The president had just passed the parking lot and we were trailing behind his convoy when the explosion happened… just 100 metres from the bus we were driving in.”

Mr Jonathan had been speaking to supporters of his ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as part of his bid for re-election at polls in two weeks’ time.