Nairobi, Nov 28 (IANS/EFE): At least 35 people have died in a bomb explosion on a busy highway in the northeastern Nigerian state of Adamawa, one of the areas hit hard by the violence of the Boko Haram Islamist terror group, a media report said Friday.

The device exploded Thursday on the side of the highway near a checkpoint manned by army troops and local vigilantes.

Security forces were deployed to the region following the capture of nearby towns by insurgents in recent weeks.

According to witnesses quoted by the Nigerian newspaper The Vanguard, at least 35 people were killed in the blast, including five soldiers and a local vigilante.

"My house is some metres from the scene of the incident. I stood outside my compound and all of a sudden, I heard a loud bang which shook the entire surroundings," the newspaper quoted a resident of the area as saying.

Following the attack, military authorities advised residents to avoid the area and be extra cautious while traveling by road.

Mubi, the second largest city in Adamawa state, and located near where the blast occurred, was retaken by a group of hunters and local vigilantes two weeks ago after routing Boko Haram insurgents who had overrun the town days before.

Although no group has claimed Thursday's attack, suspicion fell on Boko Haram which has carried out similar bombings in the region in the past as part of its campaign to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria.

Boko Haram, the name of which means "non-Islamic education is a sin" in local dialect, has killed more than 3,000 people so far this year, according to the Nigerian government.