ABUJA, NIGERIA — A massive explosion ripped through a bus station during the morning rush hour in Nigeria’s capital, killing at least 71 people and wounding 124 in a bombing that marked the bloodiest terrorist attack ever in Abuja.
President Goodluck Jonathan visited the scene and blamed Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group that operates in the northeast of Nigeria and which has been threatening to attack Nigeria’s capital. One official said he believed the bomb was buried in the ground; the emergency management agency said the explosives apparently were hidden in a vehicle.
The blast destroyed 16 luxury buses and 24 minibuses and cars, said police spokesman Frank Mba, who supplied the death toll.
Survivors screamed in anguish and the stench of burning fuel and flesh hung over the site, where billows of black smoke rose as firefighters worked to put out fires. Reporters saw rescue workers gathering body parts as ambulances rushed the wounded to the hospitals. State television has broadcast calls for blood donations.
Security workers battled to cordon off the area as a bomb detonation team was combing it for secondary explosives. Thousands of bystanders gathered, ignoring warnings to stay away.
While violence has torn the northeast, where Boko Haram has killed thousands, the capital in the middle of Africa’s most populous country has been relatively peaceful.
There was no immediate claim for Monday’s bombing, although bus stations are a favored Boko Haram target. Boko Haram’s campaign to make Nigeria an Islamic state with Sharia, or Islamic law, enforced throughout the country poses the greatest threat to its cohesion and security and threatens nearby countries where the fighters have gone to train and fight.
