A 10 year old female suicide bomber has killed 15 people in an explosion at a market in Damaturu, northeast Nigeria.
Eye witnesses say the blast occurred at about 9.30 am local time – the latest in a series of attacks that hit the region.
Some traders at the market told journalists that the girl who blew herself had two other accomplices who were apprehended.
Speaking on one of the apprehended suicide bomber, a trader, Bukar Saliu said, the woman had to be shot at before she could talk.
“The woman who was injured by the gunshot fired at her later confessed to the security operatives that they were three in number sent by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on a mission to detonate the bombs.
“The woman confessed that their third company was asked to take her explosives to the hospital with the intention of detonating it when people coming to see the casualties gathered there.
And when the security people rushed to the hospital, they were able to identify the woman and disarmed her.”
Police spokesperson in Yobe, Toyin Gbadegeshin, confirmed the incident to journalists, “a female suicide bomber, aged about 10 years, detonated the explosive device at a crowded main entrance of the popular Sunday Market, killing 15 people, including 10 females and five males, while injuring 47 others.”
He said, the police have recovered five other units of explosives that have not yet detonated.
The blast is coming six days after a suicide bomber killed three policemen at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.
Earlier this month at least nine people were killed in the state by a female suicide bomber as worshippers gathered to mark the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.
