Ten people have been killed at a market in northeast Nigeria when a girl thought to be aged just 12 detonated explosives she was carrying.

Hussaini Aisami, a relative of one of the injured victims and a health worker, said the blast, in Wagir, in the Gujba district south of the state capital Damaturu, killed 10 and injured more than 30.

“It was a suicide attack by a girl of around 12 years,” said Hussaini Aisami.

“She went into the market and headed straight to the grain section. She detonated her explosives in the middle of traders and customers.

“Ten people died from the explosion. We brought 30 people to the hospital.”

• Boko Haram is raping women to breed an army
• Girls, women rescued in Nigeria

Tuesday’s attack bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram Islamists, who have used young women and girls in the past as human bombs and regularly attacked “soft” civilian targets such as markets.

On Monday, a girl thought to be aged about 17 killed at least 20 at a bus station near a fish market in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, when the explosives she was carrying went off.

A girl about the same age was also killed nearby in a suicide blast but there were no other casualties.