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Four witnesses told Reuters near the scene that a woman had
entered the roadside trading area behind the city's main market
before blowing herself up.
"While the people were trying to help the injured the second
bomb blasted," witness Sani Adamu told Reuters. "I saw lots of
bodies".
Nigerian authorities did not immediately respond to requests for
comment. There was no claim of responsibility, but suspicion is
likely to fall on violent Islamist group Boko Haram, whose
5-year-old campaign for an Islamic state has killed thousands.
Using female suicide bombers has become a growing tactic of the
group.
Adamu said he counted more than 30 people on the ground, but did
not know if they were dead or wounded.
Another three witnesses said at least 10 were killed in the
blasts. Police cordoned off the scene and sirens wailed in the
aftermath.
"I counted ten dead bodies on the ground before the police
arrived," Muhammadu Garba, a trader, told Reuters.
A source at Maiduguri's General Hospital said five bodies had
already arrived from the scene.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan plans to ask the national
assembly to extend a state of emergency in three northeastern
states worst hit by the insurgency when it expires this week.
(Reporting by Lanre Ola and Isaac Abrak, Writing by Julia Payne;
Editing by Ralph Boulton)
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