UPDATE ON #ABUJABOMBBLAST!!!! - 71 CONFIRMED DEAD AND 121 INJURED AS JONATHAN VISITS SITE.... (GRAPHIC IMAGES)..

A bomb blast rocked a crowded bus station near Abuja the capital city of Nigeria early this morning.

The loud blast rocked Elrufai Park Nyanya Bridge, packed with commuters heading to the capital Abuja on Monday, with many people feared injured, the rescue agency spokesman told AFP.

The confirmed toll from the twin bombing is 71 killed and 124 wounded so far, police spokesman Frank Mba said.

The twin blasts rocked the Nyanya station roughly five kilometres (three miles) south of Abuja at 6:45 am (0545 GMT) and destroyed some 30 vehicles, mostly large passenger buses, officials said.

The victims of the blasts included commuters on their way to work who were already seated in the high capacity buses operated by the Abuja Automobile Management Company, itinerant traders of soft drinks and food items, commercial motorcycle riders and their passengers and other commuters waiting by the roadside for vehicles.

Scores of vehicles parked within the park were also affected. It was observed that the vehicles inside which the bomb was planted were parked less than a metre to the high capacity buses. It be confirmed whether the rigged vehicles were parked at the garage overnight or early this morning.

JONATHAN AT THE SITE OF THE BLAST

No group has yet claimed the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on Boko Haram, an insurgent group blamed for killing thousands across northern and central Nigeria since 2009.

Boko Haram bombers have attacked Nigeria’s capital in the past, most prominently in a 2011 car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in the city that killed at least 26 people.

JONATHAN VISITS VICTIMS

Dozens of people were killed in the bomb blasts in Nyanya bus park this morning,” NEMA spokesman Manzo Ezekiel told AFP, adding that witnesses reported hearing two separate explosions.

The explosions left a hole roughly four feet (120 centimetres) deep and scattered personal items as well as human flesh across the compound.

Bus parks have been among Boko Haram’s most favoured targets, including multiple, coordinated bombings at a terminal in the northern city of Kano last year that killed more than 40 people.

The explosion on Monday “affected quite a number of people because it was still early in the morning and there was a lot of traffic,” Otegbade told reporters at the scene.