No fewer than 50 people were feared killed and many others injured when two bombs exploded in Gombe central market Thursday evening as customers were busy making last-minute Ramadan purchases.

The first bomb was said to have exploded by 5:20pm while the second followed moments later a few metres away from where the first went off.

A witness described the incident as frightening. “We were here when suddenly we heard a loud explosion which scattered everything around it and sent all of us running…soon there was another explosion just close by. By the time, we returned to the scenes, many dead bodies littered the ground. People were crying. My neighbour lost his son who strayed away from where we were all selling”, 52-year-old Mallam Maina told our reporter.

He placed the number of the dead at no fewer than 50, adding it could be more as some of the survivors were critically injured and may not survive for long.

A member of the Nigeria Red Cross Society said the corpses had been deposited at the mortuary of the Specialist Hospital and Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe. He could not volunteer further information.

Gombe State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kudu Nma, confirmed the incident.

He said, “There was a bomb blast. The (bomber) was either on a suicide mission or may be the bombs were kept somewhere with the view to causing panic and apprehension to people.”

According to him, the bomb exploded at the Sabon Layi footwear market.