President Goodluck Jonathan has declared three days of national mourning and ordered an investigation into the cause of Sunday's accident, in which a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by privately owned domestic carrier Dana Air crashed into the iron roof of an apartment block in the Lagos' suburb of Agege.
"This is really a horrific moment for us here and we sympathise and give condolences to all the victims and families. (There are no) words to express our pain and grief," Reuters quoted Lagos State governor Babatunde Fashola as saying at the crash site.
"It is saddening, it is simply too much," he added.
The airline said on Sunday 147 people had perished, but in a list published overnight, there were six crew members, taking the total to 153 killed.
"70 bodies have so far been evacuated from the wreckage, efforts are ongoing to remove the remaining bodies," Oke Osanyintolu, head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for Lagos state, told Reuters on the scene.
A crane was helping clear away some of the debris.
Search and rescue teams found what they believed to be the plane's black box flight recorder and handed it over to police, said Bankole Abayomi, director search and rescue for NEMA.
The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Though large curious crowds were still gathering around the scene, they were more controlled than on Sunday, when thousands thronged the streets, blocking access to the emergency services.
"This is a crash site, it is an investigation site and we should keep our distance and allow the first responders to do their work," Fashola said.
Among the dead was the spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Levi Ajuonuma, according to a passenger list released by the airline.
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