Bomb and gun attacks targetting police stations and churches in the northeastern Nigerian city of Damaturu left dozens of people dead and at least 100 injured, witnesses said on Saturday.
The attackers bombed a city police headquarters, three other police stations and several churches in Damaturu late on Friday after similar raids in another city that had already been the target of attacks.
A lawyer who visited Damaturu's government hospital on Saturday looking for a missing friend said he counted 60 bodies in the morgue.
"I have seen 60 dead bodies in the hospital, all brought in yesterday from the attacks," the lawyer said by telephone."I am here to look for my friend who didn't return home yesterday." He said anxious relatives were flocking to the hospital in search of loved ones.
A senior local government official in the city said the hospital was full to the brim with the injured following Friday's attacks.
"The general hospital is full with people who were injured in the attack. If I say there are hundreds injured, it's not an over-estimation. Everywhere is full with the injured," he said.
Gunmen bombed police posts and churches in the city before engaging in gun battles with security forces, hours after a lunchtime suicide attack targeted an army base in the city of Maiduguri, also in the northeast.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but residents of Damaturu suspect a group called Boko Haram, which is based in Maiduguri.
The police headquarters in Damaturu, just west of Maiduguri, appeared to have been one of the first and main targets of the attacks.
A mason working there at the time of the attack said he saw bodies of five policemen as he made good his escape after the bomb went off.
"I was plastering a building in the police headquarters when I heard a loud blast. I was thrown to the ground, and the window I had just fixed was blown up from the impact of the blast. I believe I saw five dead men. ... They were men in police uniform," Adamu Mohammed said.
He said he saw several others injured as he scaled a fence to flee the scene.
In a neighbourhood called Jerusalem, six churches were bombed in addition to a police station.
"A police station and a mechanical workshop of the police were attacked. Six churches in the area were also bombed," said resident Edwin Silas, adding: "The whole city is traumatised."
Soldiers and police have mounted checkpoints in parts of the city, searching vehicles and carrying out pat-downs of drivers and passengers.
In the town of Potiskum, a grenade narrowly missed a police station and an ensuing gun battle left one policeman dead.
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