A loud explosion was heard this morning in Abuja as a bomb blast hit a motor park in the the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The blast was reported around Nyanya axis of Abuja, beside El-rufai bus stop, near Nyanya bridge, Abuja. Some residents of the FCT said the bomb blast occurred at Nyanya motor park, killing about 200 persons.
Casualties have been reported, with injured persons being rushed to the nearby Nyanya General hospital as well as the 50 confirmed dead.
It is unclear how the bomb got to the park, but witnesses suspect it was planted by a suicide bomber.
Several vehicles were destroyed in the attack as they caught fire following the blast.
Some of the affected buses were said to be loaded with passengers when the explosion occurred.
“This morning there was an explosion at the Nyanya Motor Park,” Manzo Ezekiel of the National Emergency Management Agency told BBC, adding that rescue teams are on the ground.
Eyewitness Mimi Daniels told Reuters; “I was waiting to get on a bus when I heard a deafening explosion then smoke.”
“People were running around in panic,” added Daniels.
Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, outlawed Boko Haram sect is suspected to be responsible for the attack.
Boko Haram’s fighters have killed more than 1,500 civilians in three states in north-east Nigeria in 2014, says the BBC’s Will Ross in Lagos.
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