Yesterday afternoon’s bomb blasts in Jos, capital of Plateau State in North-Central Nigeria, killed at least 118 people, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed.

“The exact figure of the dead bodies recovered as of now is 118,” NEMA Coordinator Mohammed Abdulsalam told AFP.

He added that “more bodies may be in the debris” of buildings which collapsed due to the intensity of the blasts, disclosing that 56 people were injured in the blasts.

Plateau State Police Commissioner Chris Olakpe, however, quoted far lower figures, telling reporters that 46 people were killed and 45 others were injured.

He maintained later: “We are saying 46. That’s the number we have in the morgues. But we are not ruling out more bodies.”

As reported last night, a News Express Special Correspondent in Jos counted 84 corpses made up of 28 at Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), 52 at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital and four at the teaching hospital of the privately-owned Bingham University.

The first blast occurred about 3pm at the second-hand shoes market between old JUTH and the railways. The bomb reportedly went off in a Siena space bus marked Plateau XB 146 BLD. It was soon followed by two other explosions in the vicinity.

President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned the bomb blasts, describing the perpetrators as cruel and evil.

•Photo shows fire fighters putting off the fire arising from the Jos bomb blasts.