A witness to the early morning bomb blast at a crowded bus station on the outskirts of Abuja today has given a mind-chilling account of what he saw. More than two buses carrying workers were cut up by the blast,” witness Kingsley Ajimobi said. “I saw many people in the bus dead, and many were injured.” At least 35 people were said to have died in the blast at Nyanya major bus park, the first such attack near the Nigerian capital for two years.
Body parts and blood were strewn across the station and an unruly crowd of several hundred onlookers were roaming around with security forces unable to keep them away.
“I was waiting to get on a bus when I heard a deafening explosion then saw smoke. People were running around in panic,” said Mimi Daniels, who works in Abuja.
A Reuters cameraman saw 20 bodies at the station near Nyanyan bridge, south of Abuja. A second Reuters correspondent saw at least 15 bodies separately loaded into waiting ambulances.
Police and the military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.