At least 47 students were killed on Monday when a bomb ripped through a school assembly in Nigeria's northeastern town of Potiskum, police said.
The attack took place at a boys' science and technical school in Yobe State, a territory that has seen numerous attacks by Boko Haram extremists.
"There was an explosion detonated by a suicide bomber," national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told AFP news agency, adding that the Islamist group was likely to blame.
Mariam Ibrahim, a teacher at the Government Science Secondary School (GSS) in Potiskum, told Reuters news agency the bomb went off as she was arriving and students were having their usual morning briefing.
Potiskum resident Aliyu Abubakar said he heard the explosion when he was dropping off his two sons at a nearby Islamic college. "One of my sons fell down, I came out, dragged him in and we drove off back home," he said.
"There are some (others) that are critically injured and I am sure the death toll will rise," another teacher said, asking to remain anonymous.
"Dastardly attack"
Hospital records showed 48 bodies and many body parts were brought to the morgue. Seventy-nine students were admitted, many with serious injuries that may require amputations, health workers said. The hospital was so overcrowded that some patients were crammed two to a bed.
The victims all appeared to be between the ages of 11 and 20, a morgue attendant said.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan described the violence as a "dastardly attack".
The United States also strongly condemned the latest unrest.
"Our sympathies and thoughts are with the victims and their families of these latest egregious assaults on innocent civilians by those bent on fomenting violence, extremism and insecurity in northeastern Nigeria and the region,'' US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.
Soldiers chased away
Soldiers rushed to the scene of the blast, but they were chased away with stones and calls by people angry at the military's inability to halt an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Last week, suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked a religious procession of Shiite Muslims in the same city, killing 30 people.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language, has targeted schools, abducted students and killed thousands in its campaign to carve out an Islamist state.
The group has increased attacks and bombings since the government announced it had brokered aceasefire on October 17.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has denied negotiating a truce.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS, AP)
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