At least 40 people have died in a double-bombing in central Nigeria, just months after more than 100 were killed in a similar attack.

Two bombs exploded near a bus station in the city of Jos on Thursday evening, witnesses said, the second one killing at least 40 people.

It is feared that the bombings were carried out by Islamist militants Boko Haram, who engineered an attack on the same bus station in May, killing 118.

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Rescue workers carry an injured victim of the double bomb blast in the central Nigeria city of Jos

Casualties from the first blast could not immediately be ascertained and Nigerian security sources could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the city, said the scene of the attack was a densely populated area.

'I saw a flash of light and heard a loud boom. Afterwards there was debris everywhere and mutilated bodies,' witness Tanko Mohammed said of the blast in Jos's commercial Terminus district.

'The bodies recovered so far are 31 but rescue workers are at the scene and the figures may change,' Pam Ayuba, spokesman for the Plateau state governor Jonah Jang said.

Boko Haram is a Sunni jihadist movement that has been waging a five-year insurgency to establish an Islamist state in the northeast of the country.

Two bombs exploded near a bus station in the city of Jos on Thursday evening, witnesses said, the second one killing at least 40 people

Similar attack: Thursday's blast in the central city of Jos, Nigeria, comes just months after a similar attack at the market killed 118 people

The terrorist organisation has increasingly used women as suicide bombers in attacks ranging from Borno state in the far northeast to Niger to the northwest.

Just last month, at least 120 people were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at Kano's central mosque and gunmen opened fire on worshippers as they fled.

Security analysts have seen the use of women - whether voluntarily and ideologically motivated or coerced - as a sign that Boko Haram wants to sow fear and terror further afield.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states last year. The number of attacks has risen sharply since then, in the run-up to elections in February 2015.

The latest blasts came as both Jonathan's ruling party and the main opposition coalition agreed on candidates to contest the elections, in which security is likely to be a major campaign issue.