A double bomb blast at at a makeshift market near the Terminus bus station on Thursday has left at least 31 dead in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.
Mohammed Abdulsalam, coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), confirmed the incident in a city reputed for violent religious and ethnic clashes.
“The bodies recovered so far are 31 but rescue workers are at the scene and the figures may change,” added Pam Ayuba, spokesman for the Plateau state governor Jonah Jang.
The city, which is the capital of Plateau, lies in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” where the mainly Muslim north meets the mostly Christian south.
It has been targeted by Boko Haram Islamists in the past but is also a hotbed of ethnic and sectarian tensions that frequently boil over into deadly violence.
A twin car bomb attack in May left at least 118 people dead, in Jos.