Two female suicide bombers today caused massive explosion at a crowded commercial centre of Maiduguri, killing scores and injuring several others, witnesses and security sources said.

The two teenage girls, according to first witnesses, simply walked into the One-way area of Maiduguri’s main market at about 11:20am and one of them blew herself up killing about three women.

When unsuspecting sympathisers gathered to watch the scene, the second girl who was also heavily wired with explosives screamed and then the device hidden under her garment blew up killing about 30 persons.

Abba Aji Kalli, the Borno State Coordinator of Civilian-JTF, told LEADERSHIP reporter on phone: “I am right here at the scene and I have before me 11 corpses that have not been evaluated; many have been taken away by relatives, while others are taken to the state specialist hospital.

“We have many people that are seriously injured after the two blasts.”

The Civilian-JTF chieftain explained that “from what one of the survivors told me while being helped to get to the hospital, the bombers were two girls dressed in full hijab. One of them blew up herself and about three persons all women were killed, and minutes after that when people came round to see what happened, another bomb went off after a girl screamed and many people, over 30 of them got killed. We cannot say the exact figure for now because even before our arrival here some of the corpses had been taken away, while some including that of the bombers were mangled beyond recognition.”

Security operatives, comprising soldiers and police officers have cordoned off the area while rescue workers continue to help victims to get to hospitals.

Today’s blast is the first to be recorded in Maiduguri since the last one that killed 56 people in the same market area on July 2, 2014, when a car ladened with explosives blew up amidst traders coming out for their daily businesses.

The police authority is yet to issue any statement on the blasts, even as the mobile phone line of the police spokesman, Gideon Jubrin, remains switched off.

•Adapted from LEADERSHIP Online.