KANO, Nigeria (AFP) ― Attackers have stormed a church service in an area of Nigeria’s volatile northeast and killed 15 people in the latest such violence targeting Christians in recent days, an official said Monday.

Nigeria’s military however denied the attack, with a spokesman issuing a statement saying that while he was not present in the area where it was said to have occurred, “all my enquiries indicated that nothing like that happened.”

However, Nigeria’s military tends to downplay such incidents, and the official who spoke of the attack is the regional coordinator for the country’s National Emergency Management Agency.

News of the killings emerged after President Goodluck Jonathan questioned whether deadly Islamist attacks on churches in his country and other violence worldwide could be signs of coming “end times.”

Jonathan also suggested that the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram aimed to take over the Nigerian capital Abuja, but vowed the group would be defeated and claimed that progress had been made in thwarting attacks.

Details were still being confirmed from the remote area where the latest church attack occurred, but it appeared the victims had been shot, said Mohammed Kanar, the emergency agency coordinator.