LAGOS, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Police in northeast Nigeria's restive Borno state on Saturday confirmed that 18 people were killed while 22 others injured in the Friday attack at a market.
State police chief Damian Chukwu, who confirmed the incidents to reporters in Maiduguri, capital of Borno, said a male and two female suicide bombers detonated themselves at the Kasuwar Kifi in Konduga.
The police chief said normalcy has been restored to the area.
However, the National Emergency Management Emergency (NEMA) zonal coordinator, Bashir Garza, put the death toll at 17 and 51 injured.
The official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had reported that 22 people were killed and 28 others injured in the suicide bombing.
Idrissa Bana, an eye witness, was quoted as saying that the three bombers simultaneously detonated the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on their bodies in the crowded market.
"There were a lot of people doing last-minute shopping when the suicide bombers hit the market," he added.
No group has yet to claim responsibility, though the Boko Haram militant group has stepped up its campaign of suicide bombing using girls, usually veiled, to blow up targets in Nigeria's northeast.
Earlier this month, six people were killed and 39 others injured in a suicide attack in northeastern Nigeria.
A New Year's Day blast killed at least three people in Nigeria's northeastern town of Madagali.
The West African nation has lost more than 20,000 lives in the Northern region since 2009 to the insurgency of Boko Haram.
