Girl 'Suicide Bomber' Beaten To Death And Burned

A teenage girl suspected of being a suicide bomber has been beaten to death and her body set on fire at a market in northeastern Nigeria.

Two girls refused to be searched after arriving at the gate to a vegetable market in Bauchi on Sunday, according to vendor Mohd Adamu.

A crowd overpowered one of the girls and discovered she had two bottles strapped to her body.

They then clubbed her to death before putting a tyre doused in fuel over her head and setting it alight.

A second suspect, also a teenager, was arrested at Muda Lawal, the biggest market in Bauchi.

Police Deputy Superintendent Mohammad Haruna said it was unlikely the girl was a suicide bomber as she did not detonate any explosives when she was attacked.

He described her as the victim of "mob action carried out by an irate crowd".

A spate of suicide bombings in Nigeria has been blamed on the Islamist Boko Haram group.

Girls as young as 10 have been used to carry explosives during attacks at busy markets and bus stations. Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of people during attacks in the northeast of the country.

Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the group for attacking soft targets and claimed the spate of bombings was a retaliation to the Nigerian military's success in regaining towns held by extremists for months.

In 2014, around 10,000 people died in Nigeria after Boko Haram attacks, according to the US Council on Foreign Relations. Another 1.5 million have been forced from their homes.

A US missionary was kidnapped by masked gunmen after an attack at a school in central Kogi state last week.