At least 35 people ?were killed on Thursday in two attacks in the northeast Nigerian town of Biu and central Nigerian city of Jos, according to residents and the military.
In the first attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at Tashar Gandu bus station on the outskirts of the town of Biu in northeast Nigerian Borno state, killing 18 people and injuring six others.
A second bomber was mobbed and killed before he could detonate his explosives at the scene of the carnage, residents and local vigilantes said.
“We have received 18 dead bodies ?from the scene of the suicide explosion along with six injured victims,” said a nurse at the Biu General Hospital who asked not to be named to protect her safety.
“The two men came to the bus station? around 2:55 p.m. pretending to be traders intending to take a bus back to their village and one of them detonated his explosives among a group of passengers waiting to board a bus,” local vigilante Ahmad Girema said.
“He killed 18 people, including three women. His accomplice was, however, restrained by the crowd around before he could pull the trigger … and (he was) beaten to death?,” Girema said.
His account was supported by Laminu Kolo, a driver at the bus ?station.
An angry mob later doused the body of the failed bomber with gasoline and set it alight from a distance, causing the unexploded devices on him to explode, Kolo said.
Hours later, 17 people were killed in the central city of Jos when explosives were thrown on two crowds from a moving car.
“There were twin explosions along Bauchi Road this evening, which killed 1?7 people and injured some others,” said Iweaha Ikedichi, military spokesman in the city.
Ikedichi declined to provide details of the incident.
However, witnesses said two ?explosives were thrown at an open-air bus station along Bauchi Road, killing five people and injuring several others.
“There was a heavy downpour today and soon after the rains stopped?, a car drove along the road and two explosives were thrown at the motor park, which killed five people,” said Sagir Badaru, a driver at the Bauchi Road bus station.
“The car threw another explosive in the midst of grocers outside the main bus station some hundreds of meters away, killing 12 people and wounding many,” Badaru said.
Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, Boko Haram Islamists, who have carried out deadly bombings in Biu and Jos, are the prime suspects.
The Islamists are believed to be behind a recent spate of suicide bombings and attacks in parts of the north in response to a sweeping offensive on Boko Haram strongholds in northeast Nigeria by a regional alliance of troops from Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.
