Nigeria 'girl bomber' Attacks Market.
At least 19 people have been killed and several injured by a bomb strapped to a girl reported to be aged about 10 in north-eastern Nigeria, police say.
The bomb exploded at market in the city of Maiduguri, in Borno state.
"The explosive devices were wrapped around her body," a police source told Reuters.
No group has said it carried out the attack. The market is reported to have been targeted twice in a week by female bombers late last year.
Correspondents say that all the signs point to the militant Islamist Boko Haram group.
They have been fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in the north-eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which have borne the worst violence in their five year insurgency.
Nigerian soldiers stand guard at the offices of the state-run Nigerian Television Authority in Maiduguri (June 2013)
The Nigerian military often finds itself on the defensive in the town of Maiduguri, which is frequently the target of Boko Haram attacks
Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin said that the girl bomber let off an improvised explosive device near the area of the Maiduguri market where chickens were sold.
The BBC's Abdulahi Kaura in Lagos reports that this will not be the first suicide bombing involving young girls, part of a new militant strategy intended to capitalise on the fact that people in the Muslim-dominated north are less suspicious of women.
The bomb exploded at market in the city of Maiduguri, in Borno state.
"The explosive devices were wrapped around her body," a police source told Reuters.
No group has said it carried out the attack. The market is reported to have been targeted twice in a week by female bombers late last year.
Correspondents say that all the signs point to the militant Islamist Boko Haram group.
They have been fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in the north-eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which have borne the worst violence in their five year insurgency.
Nigerian soldiers stand guard at the offices of the state-run Nigerian Television Authority in Maiduguri (June 2013)
The Nigerian military often finds itself on the defensive in the town of Maiduguri, which is frequently the target of Boko Haram attacks
Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin said that the girl bomber let off an improvised explosive device near the area of the Maiduguri market where chickens were sold.
The BBC's Abdulahi Kaura in Lagos reports that this will not be the first suicide bombing involving young girls, part of a new militant strategy intended to capitalise on the fact that people in the Muslim-dominated north are less suspicious of women.