Nigerian shopping mall explosion Wednesday June 25,2014

An explosion in a Nigerian shopping mall has killed at least 21 people just an hour before the national football team played Argentina in the World Cup on Wednesday June 25,2014

Witnesses said the blast left body parts scattered around the Emab Plaza in an upmarket district of Abuja, as billows of black smoke could be seen from a mile away.
It turned what should have been a national celebration into a national tragedy as Nigeria secured its place in the World Cup's knockout stages for the first time since 1998.
It came a week after 14 people were killed by a suicide bomb while watching the Brazil v Mexico match in Damaturu, Nigeria.
Nigeria football coach Stephen Keshi said after the bombing: 'How much of a victory is football going to give for those lives? What are they doing these guys? They did it the first game, and they now they did it again, it is sad.'

Those injured in the bomb blast waited for treatment at the Maitama general hospital in Abuja

The area around the popular shopping centre - hit at its busiest time of the day at around 4pm - was sealed off as rescue workers retrieved the dead

Rescue workers carry the remains of a person in a body bag after the bomb in the crowded mall. Witnesses reported seeing shoppers covered in blood

Police Superintendent Frank Mba said 17 people were wounded and 21 bodies were recovered, with rescue work still ongoing at the shopping mall

A Nigerian soldier at the scene of the explosion

Several cars were left burnt-out by the bomb, which unconfirmed reports suggested could have been dropped off next to the mall by motorbike

People could do little but watch as a plume of thick black smoke rose into the air, which could be seen a mile away from the site of the explosion