At least 32 persons have been killed after an explosion ripped through a busy market in Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, an emergency official said.

The National Emergency Management Agency’s coordinator in the city, Mr Sa’ad Bello, said 40 other persons were receiving treatment in the hospital.

According to him, some whose injuries are not severe have been discharged.

In the meantime, the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, is appealing to members of the public to donate blood to victims of the blast.

The spokesman for the Centre, Mr Mohammed Dodo, said the hospital blood bank and other facilities, such as drugs, had been overstretched, as a result of the incident.

The spokesman for the Adamawa Police Command, Mr Othman Abubakar, said the blast was carried out by two suicide bombers who also died.

The blast happened at about 7:40 pm on Thursday at the Jimeta Main Market in the city, just as traders were finishing business for the evening.

A resident of the town was quoted to have told Premium Times, “We just finished observing the Maghrib prayer when we heard a loud blast in the direction of the market.

“You know many traders also come out of the market and display their wares outside the main market to also observe the night market,” he said, adding that there was gridlock in the area “with many Keke Napep (tricycle) operators jostling for passengers” when the bomb exploded.

This brings to at least three, the number of attacks recorded within 24 hours as Northeast Nigeria has experienced renewed attacks from terrorists in the past week.

Seven people were killed with eight others injured in Maiduguri, Borno State late Wednesday night at a military check-point at a mechanic workshop, opposite Sector One Military Base and NNPC mega station, on Baga road in Maiduguri.

A bomb-laden car has also exploded at another military check point where scores of soldiers are feared dead barely a kilometer away from the mechanic shed where Wednesday night’s attack was carried out on Baga road in Maiduguri.