A bomb explosion killed at least ten people in the main market in Chad’s capital N’Djamena early today, reports said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility but Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group based in neighbouring Nigeria, has carried out a series of bomb and gun attacks in Chad in recent months.

At least ten bodies were seen lying near the market’s entrance where aid workers helped injured people into ambulances.

Security forces stopped people entering the site and searched stalls for more explosives.

Chad has been at the forefront of a regional military campaign against Boko Haram, which is seeking to carve out an Islamist state in northeast Nigeria and has mounted raids in neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

In June, two suicide attacks on police sites in N’Djamena killed 27 people.