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1st LD: Casualties feared as blast hits bus station in NE Nigeria: witnesses

Xinhua, June 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Casualties were feared Monday as a loud blast hit a local bus station in Nigeria's Maiduguri city, capital of the northeastern state of Borno and theater of violence by Boko Haram, witnesses said.

The blast occurred at 3:40 p.m. local time, as commuters were boarding commercial vehicles to various destinations, according to Omokola Olanrewaju, a local journalist who was at the scene of the explosion.

He said high casualties were feared because the motor park, situated near a fish market, was full of passengers.

"The number of casualties expects to be high. Within a jiffy, lifeless bodies had littered the ground. The injured people cried for help and there was confusion everywhere," the witness told Xinhua via telephone.

A security official who preferred to be anonymous said the blast was apparently a perpetration of the local terror group Boko Haram. Endi