FOUR people were killed and 46 seriously wounded yesterday when a young girl suicide bomber blew herself up at a busy market in the north-east town of Potiskum.

The girl, suspected to be only 10 years old, got out of a tricycle taxi in front of a mobile phone market and detonated her explosives on the town’s main market day.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing but the attack bears all the signs of similar outrages by Boko Haram.

The group denied a Ministry of Defence statement that troops seized back control of the border garrison town of Baga, on Lake Chad last Friday.

Troops from Nigeria and neighbouring Chad have been retaking towns and villages held for months by Boko Haram even as the extremists attack other north-eastern communities.

The government hopes to reclaim enough territory to allow presidential elections on March 28, which Boko Haram is threatening to disrupt.