Many people were feared dead on Sunday after an explosion ripped apart a block of shops and apartments in central Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city.
Witnesses said that at least 20 bodies had been pulled out of the rubble of a bank and two four-storey mixed business and residential blocks on Lagos Island, in the commercial heart of the city.
"When I arrived they had got six or seven bodies out and into police vehicles and ambulances," said Laure Adiobun, a 37-year-old engineer. "I saw many more trapped. There were at least 20, maybe more."
The walls of the bank were ripped off by the blast, while the two apartment blocks collapsed entirely.
In the surrounding streets and alleyways a dozen buildings were severely damaged.
Huge crowds also thronged to the site, between Idumagbo Avenue and Oronyinyin Street, past overwhelmed security forces.
Many claimed the blast had been caused by a bomb, while others said a gas leak or generator fire may have been to blame.
Ambulance crews parked as close to the scene as they could and waited for the crowds to free the dead and wounded.
Witnesses at the scene spoke of a rapid series of blasts, and one said he had seen smoke rising from the building before the explosion.
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