Several people were killed and others injured in an airstrike in a town in Togoga, about 25km (15.5 miles) south of Mekelle in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

An eyewitness told the BBC from Aider referral hospital that he was struck in the hand by shrapnel – and saw several people fall on the ground. He said the airstrike killed a man he knew.

Another injured woman from the hospital said the situation was chaotic following the airstrike, and that she had seen several bodies on the ground.

A doctor in the hospital said he was treating seven injured persons and added that they had been barred from travelling to the incident area to assist the injured.

The Reuters news agency quoted a medic saying that 43 people had been injured by the airstrike but did not indicate the number of those killed.

Eyewitnesses said the airstrike in a marketplace was carried out by the Ethiopian army – but the Ethiopian military denied carrying out airstrikes targeting civilians.

”The army is capable of accurately hitting its targets…It is completely incorrect to claim that it was carried out at a market," an army spokesperson said.

He added: “It took out airstrikes to neutralise members of a terrorist group, but not on innocent people."

The Ethiopian government recently designated the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the former ruling party in Tigray, as a “terrorist” organisation.

Thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in the war that started in Tigray almost eight months ago.

Fighting has escalated in the past week with Tigray fighters capturing some towns and villages.