At least 71 people are dead after a bomb detonated at a bus station in Nigeria on Monday morning.
The explosion occurred right outside the capital of Abuja and injured at least 124 people in addition to the casualties, Reuters reported. Investigators suspect the bomb was inside a vehicle. No one has stepped forward claiming responsibility for the attack, but government officials say it was carried out by the militant group Boko Haram.
"I was waiting to get on a bus when I heard a deafening explosion, then saw smoke," Mimi Daniels, who survived the bombing, told Reuters. "People were running around in panic."
A bus filled with burned remains was hosed down as police held back onlookers, Reuters reported.
"These are the remains of my friend," a man who said his name was John, told Reuters. He held up a shirt covered in blood. "His travel ticket with his name on was in the shirt pocket."
Monday's attack is the deadliest to occur in the capital in two years. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Boko Haram, which seeks to form an Islamic state in the country's north, is the culprit.
The president condemned "the activities of those who are trying to move our country backwards" by carrying out the attack, Reuters reported. "We will get over it...The issue of Boko Haram is temporary."
Boko Haram, which stands for "Western education is sinful," mainly operates in Nigeria's northeast. The group has increased its attacks on civilians, including a raid on the village of Mamudo in June 2013 that killed 22 students, and another attack on a boarding school in February that killed 30. Thousands of others have died in attacks by the Islamist group.
"In some ways it's not a big surprise," Kloe Shettima, director of the U.S.-based MacArthur Foundation's office in Abuja, told Reuters. "The situation has been escalating.
"It's a statement that they are still around and they can attack Abuja when they want, and instill fear."