Girl suicide bomber kills seven in northeast Nigeria

A girl aged about 12 carried out a suicide attack at a bus station in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday, killing seven people and injuring 31, witnesses said, shortly after officials revealed Boko Haram Islamists had recaptured a strategic town.


"A girl aged about 12 detonated an explosive under her clothes as she approached the station's perimeter fence," said Danbaba Nguru, a shopkeeper who witnessed the attack in the town of Damaturu.

The Damaturu bus station has been repeatedly targeted in a string of previous suicide attacks.

"I was in the station when I saw the young girl arrive," said bus driver Musbahu Lawan.

"I think she noticed the guards checking people at the gates and she decided to detonate the explosives in the middle of the crowd outside the gates."

Nguru added: "The road leading to the gates is always full of small traders... I was lucky not to have been hit."

No claim of responsibility for the attack has been made but Islamist group Boko Haram has frequently used young girls to carry out suicide attacks.