Two female suicide bombers have allegedly killed three civilians and wounded eight in a suspected Boko Haram attack in northeast Nigeria, emergency services said Wednesday.

The twin blasts tore through a crowd late Tuesday in the town of Mafa, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from regional capital Maiduguri.

“The female bombers killed three people and wounded eight others,” Bello Danbatta, head of security for the State Emergency Management Agency in Borno state, told AFP.

The assailants entered the town among a group of local women who had gone to fetch firewood for cooking, Danbatta said.

Local district spokesman Adamu Mohammed, who gave the same toll, said the bombers waited until around 8:30 pm (1930 GMT) before launching their attack.