KANO: At least 47 people were killed and dozens wounded in a bomb blast Tuesday in a part of northeast Nigeria frequently targeted by Boko Haram militants, a medical source and witnesses said.
The explosion ripped through the weekly market in the village of Sabon Gari, around 135 kilometres (85 miles) south of Borno state capital Maiduguri, during peak trading around 1:15 pm (1230 GMT), the sources said.
"We have received at least 47 dead bodies and at least 50 with injuries from the Sabon Gari market, where there was a blast this afternoon," a nurse at Biu General Hospital, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, told AFP.
He said the injuries from the blast are mostly "severe", meaning the death toll could continue to rise.
"The explosion happened inside the market at the mobile phone section, near the livestock section of the market," said Yuram Bura, a member of a local vigilante group fighting Boko Haram alongside the army.
"It was concealed in a knapsack used for spraying herbicides. It was smuggled into the market and apparently abandoned."
Witnesses said the blast bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has previously targeted crowded bus stations, markets, mosques and churches during its bloody six-year insurgency.
"Following the explosion everybody fled the market because of fear of more explosions. However, vigilantes and volunteers went to the scene and were able to evacuate the victims," Samaila Biu, a local trader, told AFP.
"Soldiers were also deployed... The market has been closed."
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