At least 17 people have been killed in an attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria, close to the town of Chibok where hundreds of schoolgirls were kidnapped last month, witnesses have said.

Gunmen stormed the village of Alagarno late on Tuesday and stole food, razed homes and fired on fleeing civilians.

The attack came hours after twin car bombs exploded at a crowded bus terminal and market in Nigeria's central city of Jos, killing at least 118 people.

"It was a sudden attack," said Alagarno resident Haruna Bitrus, in an account supported by other locals. "They began shooting and set fire to our homes. We had to flee to the bush," he added.

Many of those who fled Alagarno, ran to Chibok, where the armed group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls on April 14.

Meanwhile in Jos, rescue workers continued to comb through the rubble of the twin explosions.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, a coordinator with the National Emergency Management Agency, said fires raged in buildings after the blasts and he expected more bodies to be found.

"We've now recovered 118 bodies from the rubble," he said. "This could rise by morning, as there is still some rubble we haven't yet shifted."

Officials said that the bombs were concealed in a truck and a minibus. The second blast killed some of the rescue workers who rushed to the scene, which was obscured by billows of black smoke.

"It's horrifying, terrible," said Mark Lipdo of the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian charity based in Jos, who described the smell of burning human flesh.

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow, reporting from the capital, Abuja, said there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Jos attack. "However, suspicion will most likely fall on the group Boko Haram," he said.

Government criticised

The Nigerian government has been heavily criticised for failing to find the hundreds of girls who were taken from their school by members of Boko Haram in April.

The group has stepped up its use of explosives in attacks that are spreading far beyond its core area of operation, including two in Abuja last month.

A suicide car bomber also killed five people on a street of bars and restaurants in the northern city of Kano on Sunday evening, in an area mostly inhabited by southern Christians.

Boko Haram, who claimed responsibility for the schoolgirls’ abduction in Chibok, has been trying to overthrow the government of Nigeria and establish an Islamic state. Thousands have been killed in the armed group’s five year uprising.

Al Jazeera