KANO, Nigeria: Authorities say a Lebanese auto-parts dealer has been shot dead in a major northern city in Africa’s most populous nation.

Kano state police spokesman Musa Magaji Majiya says attackers shot dead Tafai Saifudeen, a 55-year-old man, in front of his shop on Murtala Mohammad Way in the city of Kano Thursday afternoon.

Majiya said the police suspect an assassination because nothing was taken from the shop.

He said the gunmen fired warning shots at about 2 p.m., leading the Lebanese shop owner to come out to see what was happening.

A gunman then shot Saifudeen in the chest. The police say they are investigating the case and that no arrests have been made.

Kano has a large and tight-knit Lebanese community that settled in the commercial city mostly during the West African nation’s 1970s economic boom.