Twelve other people were also injured in the bus station blast on Wednesday.

The Bauchi State Police spokesman Mohammed Haruna says a bomb blast  in the bus station terminal in Azare town, roughly 200km from the  State capital, Bauchi  on Wednesday, October  22  night killed five people, leaving them "burnt beyond recognition," and  injured  12 others, Reuters reported. The station in Azare is a widely used transit point by travellers coming from Nigeria's embattled northeast, which has been under a state of emergency since May 2013.

After visiting the site which he described as a  “mess”, area resident Musa Babale said the blast "shook buildings" and sent locals rushing for shelter. He further said locals were fortunate the blast went off later at night, as the Azare station is packed with commuters earlier in the evening and the toll could have been much higher.  Witnesses said they believe the bomb had been embedded in a parked car and was detonated remotely.

The Police however, did not give details on the nature of the explosive device.  There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the bomb blast. “The entire surrounding has been cordoned off … No arrest has yet been made, but an investigation has commenced” Police spokesman Mohammed Haruna told the Nigerian Pilot newspaper.

Bauchi State, reports say, has been one of the hardest hit areas in Boko Haram’s five-year uprising against the Nigerian government. The blast, which struck the town of Azare, is likely to be blamed on Islamist Boko Haram militants, casting further doubt on government reports that it had reached a temporary ceasefire with the rebels in order to secure the release of 219 schoolgirls they are holding hostage.  Azare saw a series of attacks blamed on Boko Haram through 2012, while Bauchi has been consistently targeted throughout the uprising, through   church bombings, coordinated gun raids and notably a massive prison raid in 2011.