Bomb rocks market in Nigerias Borno State, 47 killed

"We have received at least 47 dead bodies and at least 50 with injuries from the Sabon Gari market where there was a blast this afternoon," a nurse at Biu General Hospital in Borno State said.

''We heard loud explosions at about 01:35 p.m. (1235 GMT). When we arrived there people had scattered, it was not suicide bombers but it [the bomb] was planted at the center of the market,” Babagana Iliya, a Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) member, told online news agency SaharaReporters.

Sabon Gari village lies along the Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu highway and is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from Biu, the largest town in southern part of Borno State.

“The explosion happened inside the market at the mobile phone section, near the livestock section of the market,” said Yuram Bura, a member of a local vigilante group, said, adding, “It was concealed in a knapsack used for spraying herbicides. It was smuggled into the market and apparently abandoned.”

Bura also expressed assurances that the Boko Haram Takfiri group has been behind the deadly attack.

According to Amnesty International, more than 17,000 people have been killed in more than six years of militancy by Boko Haram in Nigeria.

The Takfiri group, which has paid allegiance to Daesh, has also launched attacks on civilians and security forces in neighboring countries in response to their contribution to a regional drive against it.

Bomb rocks market in Nigeria's Borno State, 47 killed